To Believe In
by Houjun Ri
Summary: They went to a world where people are being manipulated by the church, watch discrimination before their eyes, see the similarities between two stones, and finally make promises they can’t keep. FMA x ToS xover.
1. Headaches aren't welcoming

**A/N: **I want Ling with Sheena! Those are my first thoughts when I first wrote this. My first draft there was actually LING here, but then it would be easier to just have Al and Ed. So here's what I came up with. This also takes right after the FMA movie, instead of going back to Germany, Ed and Al land on another world. (: I already feel like Lloyd and Edward are going to team up to annoy Kratos in the near future. Ahaha. I'm updating this if I get at least three reviews. XD; That sounds so greedy, but because this is the very first story with FMA/ToS crossover, and I'm wondering if people actually like this or not. So review once you're finished! (:

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or Tales of Symphonia

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**Chapter I:**

Headaches aren't welcoming

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He was dead.

Or at least he _felt_ dead. But then again when was the first time he had ever felt death before? Going through the gate was the closest experience he had of death. His whole body felt cold, his flesh leg was almost completely numb. Perhaps going through the portal was a bad idea because look at where he is now. Nowhere. Not in Munich or Amestris. Everything was just pitch dark.

'_I'm dead,_' he thought bitterly. '_Well, at least Al's safe._'

There was total silence. That is until he could literally hear children screaming in the background. That had actually startled the eighteen year old male. Why in the world did death have children screaming? He tired to keep his ears focus on the sound. The screams weren't in agony or in pain, they were more like startled and terrified. He could actually distinguished the two types of screams seeing as how he had heard those screams countless of times during his journey with his brother. He tired to ignore it actually, but it was hard to do so.

"Lloyd is he dead!?" he could hear a young boy cry out to someone.

He felt something warm touching his left cheek. That gave him the shivers. How in the word could he feel warmth when he was supposed to be dead? Something didn't make sense at all. He wasn't supposed to feel warmth actually he wasn't supposed to _feel_ any touch. The warm touch soon left his cheek.

"He's out cold, but he's alive," replied another voice, it was much older than the previous one.

"Look! He's twitching!" this time a female voice had cried out.

He was indeed twitching his automail fingers, his nerve system was doing so. Somehow realization hit him pretty hard. He had not died, meaning he was alive in … Munich? He warily tired to open his eyes, when he did so he groaned and automatically with his automail, Winry had made him, he covered his eyes due to the light hitting his face. He could hear some whispers buzzing around, and it caused his head to become overload with noise.

"Cut those whispers out," he hissed, still covering his eyes from the light. "It's giving me a headache."

"Everyone please be quiet," half ordered and half begged the female voice he had heard before.

There was once again total silence. The eighteen year old slowly took his automail hand off his face. He blinked a couple of times just to get adjusted to the light. His golden eyes then glanced at the two people hovering over him. His golden eyes narrowed. The silver head with blue eyes just stared at him in amazement and curiosity. The other one, the brunette, was constantly blinking his eyes wondering if the person in front of him was real.

"What?" the golden eyes male asked.

The silver head decided to answer. "You fell from the sky."

The eighteen year old raised an eyebrow questioning the younger boy in front of him. All the boy did was point upwards, causing the older male to look up to a hole he had technically made. The brunette boy next to him whistled. This caused for the golden eyed boy to take notice of the brunette.

"You sure are heavy for a small guy," he had said looking at the hole he had made then to the blond. His lips formed a grin. "Nice hole."

That literally pissed the blond one off. He had grown over the years, he was not 5'5 foot tall anymore. Sure he didn't drink milk, but he had grown several inches taller. He was _not_ short. Yet he couldn't help, but cry out in protest. "Who the hell are you calling a pipsqueak?!"

The brunette was hesitant to talk back to the blond. The sudden yell had surprised him for a few moments. He then gave him a hesitant, but apologetic expression. "Sorry about that."

The older male by a year glared at the brunette. He grumbled as he tried to sit up. He took note to thank the silver head kid who was helping him up in a sitting position. The blond looked around the place. It had reminded him of a classroom he had entered when he was once a child. He saw a big group of children wanting to get a closer look at the 'flying-man', but the brunette had shaken his head telling them to back off for a few moments. The blond male rubbed his golden eyes, a headache was now causing him some pain.

"Ugh."

"Are you feeling alright?" questioned the brunette, also helping the blond off his feet. Getting some help and finally on his own two feet, the blond groaned.

"Yeah, just a headache coming."

"Lloyd, maybe we should get my sister, so she could check up on him," piped the silver head boy with his blue outfit that caused the blond male to question the boys fashion sense. Of course he also questioned the brunettes outfit that made him double take a glance at what he was wearing.

The brunette looked thoughtful. "Sounds like a plan, I was going to follow her anyway."

The silver head kid groaned. "You were planning on ignoring her orders from the start weren't you?"

"Haha, yep!" said the smiling brunette rubbing the back of his head.

Feeling confused, and a bit uncomfortable hearing a privet conversation between friends, the blond male cleared his throat getting the attention from the two. "Yeah, uh … who are you guys? Actually scratch that, _where_ am I?"

The brunette with his outrageous red outfit decided to speak first. "I'm Lloyd Irving, and that's Genis." He pointed at the silver head boy who was next to the blond. "You're in Iselia, well actually you're in a school that's in Iselia."

"Ise…lia?" muttered the blond lost in thought. He had not seen their confused faces as they looked at each other.

"So what's your name?" asked the silver head boy, Genis. "Lloyd told you ours, how about you?"

The boys voice had snapped away his thoughts. The blond male with what looked like golden eyes stared at the young child. His gaze was then fixed at the two of them. "Edward Elric. I have a question…" Edward stared at Lloyd and Genis waiting for their answer. "Where exactly is Iselia, I know it's not in Europe." He noticed their confused expressions as they stared at each other. "It couldn't be in Amestris either," Edward whispered, placing his automail hand covering his mouth as he began to look thoughtful once again.

"Uh … " Lloyd blinked his eyes, not clearly understanding his question. His chocolate eyes landed on his best friend. "Hey Genis, where exactly is Iselia?"

The young boy sighed, not understanding how in the world Lloyd was passing his classes. "Don't you ever listen to the lessons Raine teaches?" He saw the tint of pink on Lloyds cheeks, the older boy was probably embarrassed by the lack of interest in his studies. "It's in the Western Continent, not far from the Iselia Ranch. It's also close by Triet."

The older male in front of them was showing some concern. "So … I'm not in Germany…? What happened to the gate…? Did it send me …"

"Hey are you alright? You're talking to yourself," said Lloyd hands on his hips.

Edward glanced at him, his face becoming a bit paler by the minute. "Yes, I'm … fine I think…"

Genis wasn't liking the color of the older males face. It was as if the blond male was going to pass out right in front of them. "Lloyd, let's go get Raine, to check up on him."

Lloyd nodded in agreement, "Yeah." His eyes then glanced at Edward, who was lacking a sense of style in his opinion. Brown was such a distasteful color. "Why don't you come with us? Or do you think you can wait here until we get the Professor?"

"I'll go with you," he stated clearly not liking to be idea to be alone right now. Especially in a school where the children were talking about him. He likes children, he really did, but right now was not the time to be spending time with them. He needed to get his thoughts cleared besides he wanted the fresh air right about now.

"Alright then let's go," in formed the brunette giving the blond a smile, which he didn't return back. "Uh… yeah," replied a hesitant Lloyd pointing at a direction. "The exit is that way, so let's go." Both Genis and Edward began to walk towards the exit (Genis leading the way), but soon stopped as they noticed Lloyd was not following them.

"Hey Colette!" he cried out. "C'mon let's go!"

Edward almost stopped breathing as he saw a blond haired girl with blue eyes step forward from the group of children. His muscles tensed, and he quickly looked away. The girl had reminded him of his childhood friend, Winry Rockbell. Her appearance wasn't exactly like hers though, the girl with Lloyd appeared much more child looking than Winry. It was probably those blue eyes of hers that reminded him of Winry. It worried him, being reminded of his childhood friend. Just what had happened after he passed through the portal? Was his brother and the others safe from Dietlinde? His head began to throb due to the questions. "Ungh…"

The younger boy that was next to him was worried. "Don't worry, my sister can heal you, just wait for a bit."

Edward Elric nodded. "Yeah, got it. Thanks."

The brunette and the blond finally walked towards Edward and Genis were standing at. Lloyd then pushed the blond female forward, soon introducing her. "This is Colette, she'll be coming with us. Besides she needs to go to where the Professor is heading to. She is after all going to receive the oracle thing today."

For the first time Edward heard some sort of compliment being said. "Nice job Lloyd, you're actually thinking a step ahead!"

"Shut up Genis!"

The girl giggled at her two friends somewhat bickering. Her attention then turned to the eighteen year old male. "I'm Colette Brunel, it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. …"

"Edward," he said plainly. "Edward Elric."

Her blue eyes caused him to become uncomfortable. They reminded him so much of his automachanic he had left in Amestris with his younger brother. Finally Lloyd was the one to break the awkward feeling as he pointed towards the exit. They followed him from behind, and as they stepped outside of the school building all of them noticed how empty the whole place was. Lloyd was the first one to ask about the ghostly streets.

"Man, why isn't everyone outside?"

Both Genis and Colette looked around for some sort of human life. They found none. Lloyd shrugged his shoulders, "They're probably home doing chores and stuff."

"It feels eerie," muttered the younger boy next to Edward. Edward couldn't agree more. The whole place was like a ghost town, something he always thought brought trouble. Right now, he really didn't want trouble, all he wanted was to get this head checked so he could figure out what was going on without pain interrupting his thoughts.

Edward noticed that they were heading to some sort of exit, but were stopped by a man with dirty blond hair.

"Colette!"

All their attention was focused on the blond haired adult as he was running towards them. He stopped once he was next to Lloyd. He glanced at Genis, Lloyd, and Colette completely ignoring Edward. "Thank goodness you're all safe…" he panted slightly worrying the blond female.

"Father are you alright?" she asked as she went to his side to support him.

"Frank!" cried Genis also giving the adult aid.

Both Lloyd and Edward stepped closer to the adult as he waved his daughter and Genis off, telling them he was alright. Frank gazed at the new companion the children had, his eyes soon looked rather worried and terrified. "Who … are you?"

"That's Edward," responded Lloyd, before Edward could talk. The blond didn't really liked being interrupted or someone else telling his name besides his brother, but he dropped it after more headaches began to cause him pain. "We were going to search for the Professor to have him checked, but …"

Genis had completely cut off the brunette. "Frank what happened to everyone in the village?"

The Elric noticed the hesitant look on Frank's face. It was as if he wanted to keep something a secret, yet he decided to tell them the truth. "A few moments ago Desians passed by the village, everyone went into hiding because of it. Thankfully no one got hurt at all. They left already."

Edward quickly looked over at Lloyd, who was forming his hands into fist now. "But Iselia has a non-aggression treaty with the Desians! Why would they come here?!"

"Non-aggression treaty…? Desians?" said Edward confused by the whole situation. Genis began to clarify for him.

"It's an agreement between us villagers and the Desians. As long as we keep away from the ranch, they wont attack our village."

Colette nodded sadly. "Yes, grandmother said it was a way to protect me from danger." She didn't see the confused face Edward had. "Oh! Where is grandmother now?"

"Phaidra's currently at the temple," replied Frank looking a bit worried. "She's preparing for the ritual."

Everyone ignored the annoyed face Edward had. For some reason he couldn't stand religious words at all. He couldn't believe people would easily fall for such a non-scientific thing. He wasn't much of a believer in the first place since he first learned about alchemy. He believed that science was the truth of everything, not God which was created by human beings as some type of savior of the world. He hadn't paid much attention to the conversation since he was still looking rather annoyed with it all. He couldn't believe that these kids were being brainwashed by these religious people.

"Hey are you coming or not?" asked Lloyd getting him out of his thoughts.

Edward sighed and nodded. "Yeah, gotta find that Professor you're talking about right?"

Lloyd grinned. "Yep!"

"Wait," said the doubtful adult. "Maybe it's best you shouldn't go. I mean you having a head injury will only slow down the pace of these kids. It would be better if--"

"I'm fine, I just need a check up and some medicine for these headaches, otherwise I'm fine," declared Edward slightly annoyed by the adult, he crossed his arms stubbornly. The man sighed, and nodded.

"Very well, but anyway all of you take care. If you all need anything you know where to find me." With that the male left them alone. They then continued their journey to the exit. As soon as they were close to the exit, they immediately stopped as they saw what was in front of them. It was actually a pretty gross sight to see.

"It's a monster!" cried Genis looking rather terrified.

Edward could only focus on the green skinned human as his face looked deformed. What creep him out was that the monsters right eyeball was gone, and it's left part of the mouth could only show it's yellow teeth. Memories of that _thing_ he had transmitted long ago popped in to his mind. Trembling from the memories, he stepped back. He so did not need this right now.

"Man, we don't have time for this…! Let's hurry up and fight it!" cried Lloyd pulling two wooden swords out of their sheaths. The brunette turned the speechless blond. "You have to stay back with Genis, he'll protect you with his magic.

"You're going to fight that thing?!" cried Edward clearly not liking the idea of even touching it. Thinking about it was already bad. His real hand touched his automail and clutched it. He glared at the monster in front of him. Right now he felt pretty useless.

"Just stay back!" ordered Lloyd as he was running head on to the monster. As he attacked his wooden sword didn't do much to kill the thing, actually the only think that injured the zombie was Colette's chakram rings. Edward felt disgusted as he noticed the creatures arm falling off the body all due to Colette's weapon. The battle was over once Lloyd's wooden sword went right through the creatures body. Red blood didn't come out though, instead it was purple, which confused the alchemist to no end.

Just where in the world did the portal take him?


	2. Battle in Martel Temple

**A/N:** Due to my computer getting a virus, this had to be delayed. I apologize if this chapter's battles ... suck. I'll try to be detailed in later chapters though hopefully I can do it. Also I think Phaidra COULD be Colette's real grandmother, but in this story she's not. Colette just assumes she is. Anyway thank you for the reviews, and hope you do enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or Tales of Symphonia

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**Chapter II:**

Battle in the Martel Temple

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Edward Elric couldn't believe that he was in another world again. He had come to that conclusion once he had asked the silver head twelve year old if he had known a continent called Europe or even a country called Amestris. The boy of course shook his head, and curiously stared at Edward with his blue eyes. The eighteen year old sighed in frustration he couldn't believe in the conclusion, but the kids in front of him were clearly not German or Amestrian. His golden eyes soon carefully watched the scenery that was surrounding him. It reminded him a lot like his home town Resembool. The plains caused him to have several flashbacks of his childhood when he used to play with his younger brother and his childhood friend Winry Rockbell. When they passed a small bridge made out of wood, he could clearly pictured the time his brother and him would try to catch a fish for their mother to prepare it for dinner. Closing his eyes, he tried to (for the first time) ignore the flashbacks that emotionally caused him pain.

"Hey Edward, you okay?" questioned the brunette, Lloyd Irving giving a quick glance back. He was after all behind the three kids. His question caused his friends to turn back with worried expressions.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked the blond female hands clutched together. Colette wore a small frown on her lips, and eyes clearly expressing some concern in her blue eyes.

Genis Sage began to reassure him. "Don't worry we're almost there, my sister will take a look at you soon."

Edward blinked his eyes a bit confused from the sudden questions wanting to be answered. Placing both hands inside his pant pockets, he gave them a satisfying Elric grin. "I'm fine, just remembering some stuff."

"Whoa," said Lloyd who continued walking, the others following along. "Who knew remembering things could cause you pain!"

Genis rolled his blue eyes. "Oh please Lloyd, don't use that excuse for my sister she won't believe you trust me."

Lloyd looked away looking just a bit thoughtful clearly not paying attention the the younger boys words. "Might work on next weeks math test..."

As they continued walking Edward couldn't help but wonder where in the world the portal had taken him this time. The area was very familiar to his hometown, but it was different because something felt different. With his left arm (which was flesh) he touched his automail. Luckily he still had the automail Winry had made him just before he had landed here in this strange place. Edward looked down at his left metallic leg. It was working properly, so no damage was caused when he landed on that school roof. Warily he looked up ahead, "This temple, is it far?"

The two other males looked at him briefly, then to the other blond companion. Colette put on a thoughtful expression then was replaced by a cheery one.

"Oh! It's not that far actually," explained Colette hands clasped behind her back, skipping her way on the road. "We'll be there very soon. All we have to do it follow that light!"

She had pointed a certain distance, and Edward could clearly see a tower of light or something very similar. He quirked an eyebrow questioning how in the world the source of light could actually appear as energy coming down to the ground. His lips formed a frown, just how in the world was light just suddenly appearing? It was scientifically impossible for it to do so.

"Say Colette, how is the temple like?" questioned Lloyd curiosity getting the best of him. Edward carefully listen closely, and was wondering why Lloyd didn't know the temples structure.

"Wait," interrupted Ed, "You mean you don't know how the building looks like?"

Lloyd was about to say something, but his silver headed friend decided to intervene. "We have seen it from far distance, but we've never been inside of it actually."

Curiosity got the best of Edward. "So then how do you do all those religious events? Masses?"

"Usually any sort of event is held either at the town square or the school," explained Genis. "If you're really devoted there's a church two days away from here."

The blond male decided to stay quiet and just push aside that sort of unimportant information away. As the people in front of him continued to talk amongst themselves (sometimes with him too), they stopped in front of a forest. Colette had stated that all they needed to do was be careful when walking through the forest. They didn't want to attract any sort of creatures at this moment. So the three males obeyed and within a few minutes they were out of that small forest. They could finally see the stairs that would lead them to the temple that the Professor was currently at.

"Finally!" cheered Genis. "Don't worry Edward, my sister will take a good look at you."

Edward nodded. Truth to be told, the walking had helped his headaches decrease the pain it was causing. "Yeah."

"Hey," said Lloyd getting the attention from the party. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" questioned Genis. Both blonds gave the brunette a confused expression.

"Shh!"

There was a moment of pure silence. Edwards eyes widen as he could have sworn he heard metal against metal clashing. He took a step forward. "I think someone's fighting."

"Yes," said the worried female of the group. "I think so too."

"Lloyd," piped Genis. "Could it be the Desians...?"

Forming his hands into fist, the brunette curtly nodded. "Probably..."

"Look!" pointed the young boy. "Someone is coming down!"

From the top of the stairs a figure with elegant robes began walking down. No sooner the body had lost control and began tumbling down the stairs scaring the group to no end. Immediately they had ran to the body which was already down the stairs.

"Pastor!" cried Colette recognizing the human being in front of her.

Both Edward and Lloyd helped the pastor to a more suitable position. Edward quickly noticed the wound to his left side, he narrowed his eyes as he noticed the blood spreading the mans clothes. The old man was losing too much blood for his own good. He muttered, "This isn't good."

"Pastor!" cried Colette instantly grabbing the older mans hand. "Pastor, please answer me...!"

"Cho-Chosen One...the o-oracle...the De-Desians broke the treaty y-you must be careful..." Edward could hear that the old man was trying his hardest to talk. He was about to scold Colette for even telling the older man to talk, but stopped when he noticed she had her head down and shoulders trembling. She was shaking her head.

"...Those Desians did this," hissed Lloyd.

"N-No, He-He's dead..." muttered Genis, body trembling.

All Edward could do was stare at the lifeless body in front of him. It was pale, but he knew that within time the body would turn almost into a bruise like color. What made him feel much uncomfortable with the whole situation was that the old man's eyes were open. It just stared with his brown eyes into the sky. His lips were practically purple and formed a small 'O'. The wound was still open and unhealed, so a small puddle of blood was forming clearly surrounding his body. Moving his automail which was covered with his white glove, Edward decided to close the Pastors eyes. He couldn't take the look that death gave. It was pretty creepy to see death make its work.

There were more sounds of metal clashing together. Edward really couldn't stand it, especially the small sobs that Colette and Genis were making. His gaze was now top of the stairs, eyes narrowed. Without thinking he had left the group of children, and only focused his goal on reaching the top of the stairs. He ignored their protests and cries to come back all his mind was focused on was reaching the to the top of the stairs and find out who had just murdered the old man. It was true, he didn't like the religious type of people, but a human life was not to mess around with.

Once reaching the top of the stairs, he could smell that horrible scent of blood and soon rotten flesh mixed together. A forceful of contents in his stomach began to come out of his mouth. He couldn't help but throw it all of his previous meal out of his stomach. The scent was just too strong to overbear. Wiping his mouth with the back of his automail hand, he cleaned out the substance that was once there. His golden orbs stared at the place with many emotions. He felt confused as to why many lifeless and bloodied bodies were surrounding the temple. He was pretty much terrified to see such a horrible scene, perhaps it could almost resemble the Ishbalan massacre deaths. Most of all he felt angered with the whole situation. Most of the dead bodies belonged to the religious type of people, he could distinguish it by the clothing. Some wore just plain armor with a sword in their hand.

"What the hell is this..." muttered Edward clearly not liking the situation. He knelt down, feeling a bit nauseous from the whole situation and smell. Some headaches were coming back.

"Where is the Chosen?" cried a tall male clearly not knowing that Edward was behind the scene. He was wearing really odd clothes for Edward he could almost describe it as a dress. 'A very masculine dress,' Edward pointed out. His other companions though were much odder than him. Some type of helmets, and a plain red and black uniform was what they wore. Why in need of shiny helmets?

"Chosen...?" questioned Ed noticing that an iron sword that was in front of him. His right hand quickly got a hold of it.

"Edward!!"

The enemies turned around, and instantly they raised their swords. Ed rolled his eyes in a rudely matter, tried his best to stand up straight, and he too raised his brand new sword he had found in the ground a few seconds ago. He could see Lloyd and Genis watching the scene in front of them. Edward could already tell they were pretty much feeling the same way he was a few moments ago.

"Mr. Edward are you okay?" asked Colette placing a supporting hand on his shoulder.

Lloyd had taken out his twin wooden swords, one of them was pointing at the enemies that were in front of them. "You... You Desians did this!"

"How could they..." murmured Genis, blue eyes still lingering on the scene.

"Colette!" cried an elderly female voice. "You must run!"

"Grandmother?" whispered Colette, she narrowed her eyes a bit, and once identifying the figure behind the male with the masculine dress, she cried out: "Grandmother!"

"...Lord Botta!" cried out one of the shiny helmet companions of the tall dark haired male. "There she is! The Chosen!"

The male, known as Botta, stared at the blond female for a few seconds. Grinning just a bit, he took out his weapon which was rather odd looking for the children in front of him. "Chosen!" his loud voice boomed. "Your life is mine!"

Without a thought, Edward pushed Colette behind him. He didn't understand why exactly these people were calling Winry's look-a-like, 'Chosen'. Yet this 'Chosen' was very important for them to kill, and he was not going to let an innocent girl die today. Several deaths for a day was enough for him to see. Of course he was also keeping a close watch of the youngest one in the party. Right now Genis had some sort of toy clutched in his hands.

"I won't let you Desians get away!" cried Lloyd in pure anger. "You'll pay for what you did!"

One of the shiny helmet companions laughed out. "Ahaha! Then die at the hands of the Desians you all hate!"

At that moment two of the shiny helmet enemies began to run towards them. Out of human instinct, Edward rose his sword and wondered how the hell he was supposed to fight. He wasn't skilled with swords at all. He preferred transmutating his automail than fight with an iron sword. Mentally he cursed himself for not trying out alchemy before, perhaps it could have worked in this different dimension, yet he had no time to try out a hypothesis in this instant. Right now he had to fight with a sword whether he liked it or not. Trudging forward, Edward began to attack.

Iron clashed together, making a sound that a battle had just started. Ed tried to push forward with his iron sword trying to get the enemies sword out of the way. With force Edward pushed the enemies sword aside with his own, and swiftly kicked the guy in the stomach with his metallic leg. That caused the Desian to lose his breath and fall down to his knees. Without a thought with the hilt of the sword that Edward had had impact with the Desian's metal helmet. Instantly the body laid still. Ed had to smile to himself, he had done a good job for a first timer with a sword. He wasn't all that bad at least he thought so.

Of course it was a mistake to give such high praise at such moment because another metel head guy was running towards him. Ed instantly knew the attack was going to come due to the fact that the Desian was practically screaming as he was attacking. He never really understood why some enemies would do such thing. When the enemy was close enough to him, Edward had immediately placed the sword in front of him once the enemies sword had swung right in front of him. When the two swords touch each other Edward could feel the other persons strength pushing forward. Gritting his teeth, Edward tried his best to retaliate.

"Fireball!"

Edward could have sworn he had pictured the same flame that a certain alchemist he knew would make. Eyes widen, the blond quickly looked back to see Genis Sage panting just a bit and his 'toy' weapon being held in front of him.

"Alchemy?" muttered Edward questions raising inside his head.

"Damn, they're tough..." he heard Lloyd say also panting for breath.

"Lloyd watch out!" cried Genis from behind clearly warning the brunette about the attack that another Desian was going to do. Not being able to move much due to the injury that another Desian did to Lloyd on the side of his stomach, Lloyd stood there sword in front of him. He was waiting for the two swords to impact anytime.

"Lloyd!" cried out both Edward and Colette.

A cutting shockwave along the ground had instantly pushed aside the enemy that was going to attack Lloyd. The brunette had blinked his eyes surprise from the sudden event. His head turned to the side, and wondered who in the world had just done such an amazing damage from such distance. A male with dark amethyst clothing was standing on the side where the shockwave attack had come from.

The younger ones in the battle just gaped at the male who had practically come from nowhere. Lloyd could soon feel warmth surrounding him. Green light emitted from the ground below where Lloyd was. He could feel his side become less painful than before.

"Sir...that's!" one of the Desians cried out pointing an accusing finger at the long ranged striker.

"Damn it..." muttered the leader of the group. "Never knew he would be here. Retreat for now!"

As if planned the rest of the Desians left the area quickly. They had escaped to the side where it was unoccupied, and with that they had left the temple alone. An elderly woman had stepped to the side of the temple in order to show herself. The said woman shook her head at the lifeless bodies from the Desians, priests, and mercenaries on the ground. Her elderly face looked up to see the blond female hastily running towards her.

"Grandmother!"

As the young blond took her hands within her own, the elderly woman looked up at her. A small smile played on her lips. The child in front of her would finally start her journey that she had been prepared to do at such a young age. Tightening the child's hand with her own, the elderly woman closed her eyes. Even though the child in front of her was not her biological granddaughter, she considered the young female part of her family.

"May Martel bless you Colette."

But she knew the secret from the beginning. She knew what the Chosen's role was to become. Phaidra, the priestess of the Martel Temple, opened her blue eyes. She knew that the child in front of her could never have a family that she had always dream of or the normal life she always wanted.

"May Martel ... bless you Chosen..."


	3. I ain't afraid of no Ghost

**A/N: **Thanks so much for the reviews and PM's. I'm glad many like this even though its still progressing. Sorry for the delay this month, its all due to the holidays and not to mention I've been reading Twilight (Sorry Edward-Jacob fans, I still don't get the big hype about it). So enjoy this extremely short chapter? :) Haha, they're getting just a biiit longer.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or Tales of Symphonia

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**Chapter III:**

I ain't afraid of no Ghost

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Edward was carefully trying his best not to vomit, but due to the smell it was impossible not to. Both Lloyd and Edward were currently setting the dead to the side, where Colette's grandmother had order them to. His golden orbs looked back to where the stranger and Colette's grandmother were having a heavy discussion. He also took notice of how Lloyd was giving some curiosity to the silent conversation the adults were having. He glance back to where the last body was currently at. He lowered his glance down, noticing that Colette and Genis were giving a silent prayer to the dead priest on the ground.

"Lloyd, the last one should be moved quickly," muttered Edward pointing his head to a certain direction. Both Genis and Colette were silently looking at the dead body in front of them now, prayer finished.

Lloyd sighed and nodded. "Right, let's go."

The two older teens went to pick up the dead priest that was on the ground. When they picked up the lifeless body they could see Colette wanting to help out too, but the young silver head boy stopped her. Edward concluded that this lifeless body, whoever he was, was pretty much an acquaintance to the kids behind Lloyd. Once setting the body where the rest laid, both Lloyd and Edward walked toward Phaidra, Colette's grandmother.

"We finish Phaidra," stated Lloyd giving curious stares at the male with the purple outfit. Edward gave no curious stares unlike Lloyd, so he had practically ignored the adult next to him.

The elderly blond gave the two males a grateful smile. "Thank you so much boys. I have no idea how to repay you."

Phaidra soon turned her attention to Colette who was solemnly walking with Genis. "Colette."

The female blond looked up. "Yes Grandmother?"

A small sigh escaped the lips of Phaidra as she gave a small smile to the Chosen of Mana. "It is time for you to receive the oracle. You must undergo the trial to receive the judgment from heaven."

Edward could not place what kind of expression the blond girl had given. "Yes Grandmother."

"Kratos here is a mercenary," she said as she introduced the adult that had saved Lloyd earlier today. "He is willing to accompany you inside the temple. He'll take care of the monsters that reside within the temple." With her elder eyes, Phaidra looked over at the rufous male. "I will leave the Chosen at your care Sir Kratos."

Kratos looked over at the sixteen year old female as she timidly gave a smile. He gave a curt nod and began to face the way to the entrance of the temple. "Let us go Chosen One."

"Um..."

"Hey!"

All attention was then paid to the brunette who seemed to be frowning. "Let me go too. I can protect Colette also."

Surprised Edward crossed his arms, awaiting for an argument to begin. For some reason he had the tingling feeling that Lloyd would be rejected from the tall adult. He had seen the way Lloyd stared at the stoic russet mercenary. He could see the slight jealousy and admaration coming from the seventeen year old. He couldn't tell if the younger male was curious of the swordsmans skills or envious enough to follow him. Looking back at Phaidra who looked rather uneasy, he wondered what her decision would be. She seemed rather unsure if it was a good idea to have two swordsman although it would be a good idea to have more people protecting Colette.

"I'm not sure Lloyd..." claimed Phaidra giving a predictable answer. "You may have good skills with those swords, but ... I just feel uneasy."

"Lloyd?"

Lloyd looked over at Kratos raising an eyebrow.

"You're name is Lloyd?"

Shrugging coolly he replied. "Yeah, who are you to ask for my name?"

Edward could have sworn he could see the similarities between how he had acted with Colonel Roy Mustang. The atmosphere between the two began to feel uncomfortable when Edward was around them. He took notice of how Genis kept fidgeting feeling hesitant with Lloyd's arrogance.

Kratos crossed his arms and turned his back to face Lloyd. "You'll only be in the way. Be a good boy and stay here until we return."

There was a moment of silence and everyone looked to Lloyd then to Kratos. They began wondering what in the world Lloyd would do. Surely he wouldn't take that comment so calmly. Edward of course didn't know the brunette boy in front of him, but he could somehow tell that he wouldn't put it aside that easily. Lloyd was probably a boy who had a stubborn personality.

The people surrounding Lloyd could hear the low chuckle he had made all of a sudden. "Fine."

Perhaps Edward's assumption of Lloyd having a stubborn personality was incorrect.

"I'll just follow you two on my own," grinned the cheeky Lloyd. Genis had sighed, and Edward looked towards Phaidra who still seemed a bit hesitant on letting Lloyd go with Kratos. There was an awkward silence between the two giving some tension in the atmosphere.

"You're a stubborn kid," said Kratos narrowing his eyes, he then gave a low sigh. "Do as you wish."

Lloyd gave a sudden grin and face back at Genis. "C'mon Genis let's go! You too Ed!"

Genis and Edward looked at Lloyd a bit surprised by his sudden decision. Edward looked at the sword he had in hand, then back at Lloyd. He really wasn't up for going inside the temple, he didn't even know what the hell was inside there. There probably was nothing and there was no need for protection. Besides his head was once again throbbing with pain.

"I knew you were going to say that," muttered Genis soon walking towards Lloyd. "Geez Lloyd think of how others feel rather than drag them around with you."

Lloyd ignored him and continued to follow Kratos and Colette who were entering the temple. He looked back to see Edward looking a bit annoyed. "C'mon Edward, the Professor could be inside. Let's go!"

Edward groaned, and mentally slapped his forehead. He followed the two younger boys inside the temple. Surely he didn't want to do it, but meeting Genis sister would probably be the best idea since he really was getting annoyed by the sudden headaches coming and going. Speaking of Genis, Edward looked down at the small boy walking next to Lloyd whispering something to the brunette. Golden orbs studied the young silver head child. The fire that had saved him had practically come from the boy, but how was still a mystery to the older Elric brother. It didn't take long for the party to arrive to the center of the temple. It was pretty dark and eerie also the place was giving off an atmosphere of danger.

Never letting the sword down, Edward tighten the grip. Something felt odd as they just stood there amazed by the darkness inside the temple.

"Wow, it's amazing how dark it is!" cried out Genis clearly studying his surroundings. His blue eyes showed enthusiasm as it scanned the place. "I wonder how dark it gets when going deeper inside the temple."

Lloyd looked ecstatic, as if he was a young pup wagging his tail of excitement. Looking from side to side he couldn't help but grin to himself. "Hey let's..."

"Lloyd," interrupted Kratos taking a look behind. "Are your sword techniques self-taught?"

Lloyd gave a small scowl. "Yeah so?"

Everyone looked at the two swordsman in curiosity. Kratos had gone inside his pants pocket, and took out a rectangular object. It was hard to see due to the darkness inside the temple. He took a step towards Lloyd, and gave him the object. Lloyd stared at it for awhile.

Brown eyes looked up. With some hesitance he responded, "W-What is this?"

If the room had been a bit brighter he could see a very tiny smirk placed on Kratos lips. "If you're going to use a sword, you should at least learn the basics."

The adult of the group then looked up at Edward, who got startled a bit. Kratos eyes wandered to where Edward was holding his sword with his right arm. Narrowing his eyes he looked up to see his golden ones. "You as well."

He then headed straight, continuing the journey inside the temple. Once Edward was close to Lloyd, he noticed how Lloyd was quietly fuming he gripped the rectangular notebook with his hand. "He thinks he's so better than..." he stopped and gave Edward the book. "Let's go guys."

Holding the book, Edward curiously gave a glance at it. Narrowing his eyes, he gave a low sigh. He was the one who really needed to know the basics at least. Being self-taught wasn't as bad as just picking a sword and just fighting like he had done. Edward had no swordsmanship background, so he flipped the book opened and began to read the first page as he walked behind them.

It didn't take them long to finally come to a dead end. Edward had glanced up from the book just as he was reading about self-defense. He rose an eyebrow as he saw the disappointed faces from Colette and Genis. He looked over at Lloyd who looked as confused as he was, Kratos was practically stoic the whole time.

"What's wrong?" questioned Edward to Lloyd who just merely shrugged.

"That", pointed Genis to two large door. "Is closed. We need some sort of..."

"Sorceress Ring," finished Kratos.

"But where will we find it?" asked Colette looking at the adult of the group. Edward and Lloyd looked a bit confused from the conversation.

"Wait how do you know it's sealed?" asked Lloyd stepping in front of the others, he was held back by one of Kratos free hand. Annoyed Lloyd looked back to face Kratos who was now bending down while picking up something from the ground. Instantly he had thrown a rock at the barrier. With a zap, the rock had been destroyed into many particles.

"How the..." Edward stepped forward, analyzing the barrier that was clearly blocking the way. "Lightning, but how... where is the energy coming from?"

He scanned the barrier and noticed that there was an orb practically floating. Perhaps that was the answer on how to break the barrier, but what kind of energy source could do it? Going into a scientific mode, Edward was studying the orb carefully that is until he could see Lloyd wanting to poke the barrier with his wooden sword.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Edward ignoring the presence of Lloyd while studying the orb which was the energy force of how the lightning had destroyed the rock that Kratos had thrown. "If you touch it with your wooden sword it will destroy it. The lightning will clearly make dust into it, you're lucky you don't have a steel sword like the one I have..."

Lloyd had quickly put his sword to his side, afraid of loosing once precious wooden sword. "G-Gotcha."

"You two look fascinated by this," muttered Genis arms crossed. About to give a snappy reply, Lloyd had beaten Edward to it.

"S-Shut up Genis! Not like you've seen this!"

"Actually..." just as Genis was about to explain why he wasn't so interested, Kratos began to walk away from the group.

"Instead of having small arguments we should find the Sorceress Ring right now."

The blond nodded, "Yes! It's below this room I think."

"Then let us go."

With that Colette and Kratos were ahead of the group. Edward was still examining the barrier until Lloyd had rudely pulled him away. They argued for a bit (or more like Edward was scolding Lloyd for interrupting his analysis). That is until they stopped when they noticed that the mercenary had also stopped, halting the Chosen who was behind him. Genis had instantly gripped his toy weapon and glanced around the room nervously. Colette was looking rather nervous as she had her hands clasped and looking around for any sign of dangerous creatures lurking around. Lloyd and Edward were practically glaring at each other due to their previous argument.

"Be on your guard," advised Kratos pulling his sword off the sheath.

Edward raised his own sword, trying to ignore the seventeen year old with twin swordsman next to him. He was not going to be forgiving to Lloyd. He was actually interested in that bizarre barrier that he saw not long ago. Edward was a scientist, and as a scientist he wanted to examine the structure and make hundreds of hypothesis to see if they were true. Since he had never seen one he really was curious of how it even worked in the first place.

Not paying attention to his current surrounding (he was still too busy fuming at the way he couldn't get his analysis of the barrier), he did not notice the strange sound coming from behind. His golden orbs warily looked around, simply not caring if there were any enemies near by at the moment. He was disappointed in not being able to take note of --

He shivered as something icy had passed him.

Edward's golden eyes widened, as he felt the same feeling pass by him again. The hair from the back of his neck and arms were sticking out. Even though he never believed in superstition, he could clearly say that the feeling he was having now was as if a ghost had passed him. Which clearly couldn't be possible because ghosts did not exist. There could be a simple logical explanation why he was feeling cold. But not just cold, ice cold.

Again the feeling appeared. He snapped. "What the hell?"

Lloyd looked at him with a puzzled look. "What?"

"Don't you feel that ... cold wind?"

Cold wind was perfectly a logical explanation.

Lloyd shook his head. "I'm not feeling cold, are you Genis?"

The younger boy frowned. "No... but I think..." The silver head boy turned around to face Edward who was behind him. "Look out...!" cried Genis with frightful eyes.

Both Lloyd and Edward looked back and paled as a wooden hammer was aiming at them. They jumped opposite sides. Kratos with perhaps an annoyed expression turned around to step aside, pulling the Chosen with him just in time to doge the wooden hammer.

"What the hell was that?!" cried Lloyd frantically looking around just like Edward was doing at the moment.

"Stay on your guard!" commanded Kratos as he had his sword pulled out. Behind him was Colette pulling out her chakrams and nervously looking behind Kratos. Genis was muttering something under his breath as he stood up and was observing his surrounding much more carefully than he had been before.

Edward put his sword infront of him, looking around carefully like Genis was doing. He was positive that no one was behind him because he didn't hear any footsteps from behind, so how could a random wooden hammer just appear out of nowhere? Nothing was making sense in Edwards head right now. This whole place he had landed on was causing him to become a confused school child studying the ways of Alchemy.

"H-Hey Edward..."

Annoyed Edward stared at Lloyd's pale face. He took note of how his left eye had twitched and how his index finder was pointing at him. "What Lloyd?"

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

Edward gave something of a snort and a chuckle. "There's no such thing as ghosts Lloyd. It's just an existence to scare young children from being trouble making kids."

Just as he was about to ramble on of how much he didn't believe in such things as ghost, he suddenly felt a gush of hot wind pass him by.

"Fireball!"

Again his golden orbs widen as he felt that familiar fire behind him. He quickly looked back at who had cast the fire and noted that the young silver head boy was holding up something similar to a toy he had seen a young French boy play with back in Germany. How Genis was using alchemy was something he had been pondering when they were outside the temple.

"Genis there's another one!"

Edward's head turned around when Colette had pointed something behind him. There, an almost transparent figure, was floating creepily grinning behind him. Taking a step backwards, Edward pulled his sword in front of him. Ghost weren't real, they shouldn't exist. Or more like it wasn't possible for a ghost to exist at all. They were only creatures invented by people who were really creative just to scare off children. Alchemy had explained him all of this, but why was it that his feet couldn't move?

"Lloyd! Edward! Attack the spider behind the ghost!" barked Kratos as he was running forward to the eight legged insect. "Genis take care of the ghost!"

"Take this...Fireball!" cried out Genis as he cast another ball of fire which hit the ghost, causing it to hiss.

Edward shook his head, trying to focus on Kratos command that he had given him. This whole world was confusing him. It was like everything he knew about the truth was being twisted. He gave a frustrating sigh before attacking the enormous spider that Lloyd was having trouble with.

He will just have to ask questions later, and perhaps he'll have good answers to explain all of ... these weird things going on.


	4. Colette the Chosen of Mana

**A/N: **So sorry for the delay! School started, and I'm piled up with essays. Not to mention I've been doing MEP's (Multiple Editor Project), and I feel like doing a fanfic short amv that will be somewhat of a trailer to this ... but I shall wait once I get good enough at video editing. (: So enjoy this chapter, which I hope you find ... somewhat interesting! Oh yeah, Edward will be fighting barehanded like Farah at some point. Just ... not now. Haha.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

**Chapter IV:**

Colette the Chosen of Mana

* * *

Edward wasn't sure where to begin his questions when he was walking along side to Genis who was just playing with his 'kendama' as the silver head boy had called it. To Edward it was one of those silly toys he had seen a little french boy play with in the streets on Munich, Germany. His amber orbs eyed the toy carefully, mostly how the ball would land on the side of the hammer like object.

"You look like you want to play Mr. Edward," said the blond who just magically appeared next to him. Startled he looked at the smiling girl next to him.

Giving a hesitant smile, unlike hers, he replied. "No, I was just wondering ... how fire comes out of ... that thing."

That thing he was pointing was the kendama Genis was currently playing with. Genis gave him a small glare as he called his weapon 'that'. Edward didn't pay attention to his glare, mostly how the ball was landing on the stick. It looked so easy to do. Of course someone else thought differently. Lloyd had made a small groan, and looked back at the three behind him. His brown orbs glared at the kendama.

"That stupid thing ... is hard to use."

Genis gave a cheeky grin. "Funny you made it for me, and you can't use it. Lloyd this tells everyone that you're really stupid!"

Lloyd stopped his tracks, and decided to hit Genis's head. "Shut up!"

"Ow!" cried out Genis as he rubbed his head.

Edward heard a giggle coming out of the girl next to him. He looked from Colette to Genis and Lloyd, somehow the scenery was somewhat familiar. Well he was for certain that the atmosphere of this ... happiness was really familiar. Yet it was something he had lost long ago, so it felt somewhat new to him. Colette was no Winry that's for sure, Alphonse was not a person to give smart ass comments, and surely he was not brainless like Lloyd, however; he could tell that these three were childhood friends. Edward coughed trying to get some attention as he was somewhat in between the conversation that lacked him in it.

"Genis," began Edward already finding the words on how to ask his question. "How did you create fire to hit that ... 'ghost' back in the battlefield?"

Genis looked up at Edward, giving him an 'are-you-stupid' look. "Mana, duh."

Edward gritted his teeth together, and tried his best to be a patient person to the moody twelve year old next to him. Winry and Alphonse would have been so proud of him if they saw that he wasn't screaming the boy next to him, or doing any harm. To his rescue the blond began to explain to him what exactly mana was, at least in her terms of knowledge. "Mana is basically the source of life. Meaning without it crops will wilt and droughts will come if the world is declining like it is now."

"Declining? Wait ... that doesn't exactly explains how he made fire out of nothing. Fire is usually made by an officiant amount of oxidizer, and it has to be exposed at a certain heat temperature making a flash point for the mix between those two that can cause a chain reaction," said Edward looking troubled as he spoke each word. The poor brunette boy was left confused as his whole face went blank throughout the conversation. Colette was curious of where the conversation was going, so she decided to listen. Genis was nodding in agreement with what Edward had just said.

"Yeah, all of that is true," agreed Genis. "But mana is a source of power that makes you do that. It's often referred to health or life force, but it's often used in magical actions."

"So are you saying you just 'magically' make fire?" asked Ed as his lip twitched. He was annoyed, there was no such thing as 'magic'.

Genis frowned, and crossed his arm. "Hmm, how to explain it..."

"Do you know the first law of thermodynamics?" asked the tall adult male in front of them. Colette looked thoughtful just like Genis, but Lloyd was still having his blank stare.

"Yes," answered Edward glaring a little at Kratos's back.

"Then it's as simple as you can get for now, the process is much more complicated that it requires a textbook to keep rereading the understandings," with that the mercenary said nothing more.

Edward place his index finger on hip lips, giving a thoughtful look. "So it's something similar like alchemy then...?"

"Not really," piped up Genis as he had his hands behind his head, still holding onto his toy weapon. "Alchemy is a fake science."

Edward's left eye twitched. "Fake you say?" Edward tried to maintain his cool, but the boy was pushing it.

"Well not really fake, it gave birth to Chemistry, but it's proven that you can't make gold out of everything," stated the young boy eyes up ahead of the eerie pathway they were walking on. "So that caused for alchemy to become a fake and a lost science."

Finally Lloyd's blank face turned into a shocking expression. "You can turn anything into gold?!"

Genis sighed, just as Edward had done. Lloyd wasn't too bright on education, specifically in science. Walking for a few more minutes while explaining to Lloyd that he can't exactly turn anything into gold, they had finally arrived at a certain destination where they could see the object that they were searching for. Colette had enthusiastically pointing her finger down.

"Look! It's there! I saw it shine a bit!"

"Let us use the stairs to get there then," informed Kratos as he pointed to the stairs that would lead to the floor below. And they did just that, going down the stairs carefully due to the darkness. Once in front of stone table, they noticed the small ring laying there. Edward eyed the ring carefully. Truth to speak, it looked like any normal ring he had seen in his life. Why was this simple, normal ring so important. Speaking of importance, how the hell was one normal looking ring going to break the barrier?

"So this is the Sorcerer's Ring?" questioned Lloyd as he had the same thoughts as Edward. It just looked like one normal ring.

"Yep!" answered Colette enthusiastic about the whole thing.

"So," began Edward looking at the most informative people he could get answers from which was Genis and Kratos. Lloyd and Colette were too busy being entertained by the ring. "What does it do?"

"You'll see once we go back to the barrier," said Genis already leaving the stone table.

"Whoa!"

"Wow!"

Edward looked back at Colette and Lloyd who were pretty much wore an excited and shocked expression. Kratos gave off an annoyed look, and soon followed the silver hear boy. Edward made a puzzled face before following Kratos and Genis.

"Hey Genis!" cried out Lloyd running to his side. Colette stopped between Edward and Kratos. "Think I can keep this?"

"No, Lloyd. We're just borrowing it for now, we'll leave it back once Colette receives the oracle."

"Man ... Fine."

* * *

"Alright so what do we..."

Edward's word were cut off as a tiny ball of fire had shot out of the ring. Speechless as the barrier in front of them was disappearing, his brain began to ponder what just happened. His brown robe was pulled by Genis. Amber orbs looked down and blue ones.

"We're leaving you behind if you don't hurry up," he said looking rather impatient.

"How did you ..."

"It's simple, there was a hole for the fire to get in and it hit the switch, now let's go."

Speechless, and carefully analyzing the surroundings. Edward wondered where in the world the 'switch' was. His flesh hand was being pulled by Genis leading him to where Kratos, Colette, and Lloyd were. He took note that the kid dragging him was not going to let him lag behind from the group. As they began to walk up the stairs, Edward mused how many stairs this whole place had. This time he was carefully observing the place, not giving up any details up.

Finally when the group reached the end of the stairs, the group covered their eyes slightly. Being in such a dark place for a long time, they couldn't help but feel the sting in their eyes as they saw the light.

"Man! It's so bright!" exclaimed Lloyd covering his whole face. "Ugh."

"Talk about over exaggerating," muttered Genis now next to Lloyd.

"Shut up Genis!" cried out the twin swordsman with a pink hue on his cheeks of embarrassment.

"Chosen."

Colette glanced toward the hired mercenary,and gave a slight nod. "Right."

The blond female stepped forward, and began to walk towards the the middle of the room, where Edward could have sworn he saw white light coming from the floor. Once Colette was standing in the middle of the room where there was an alter, she placed her hands together. It was a gesture for signaling that she was about to do a prayer. The males behind her just patiently watched her, and wondered what was going to happen next. After a minute or two, Genis and Lloyd gave each other confuse glances.

"Hey Kratos," began Lloyd having a small tint of pink in his cheek. He didn't want to look silly in front of the older male. "What do you ..." A sudden flash of light silenced Lloyd, and all of them began to cover their eyes from the shining light.

As for the foreign blond male, he was struggling for opening his amber eyes. Once he did so, he couldn't help but gape at the person floating in front of Colette and the others. His eyes studied the white wings that the other blond male had. The wings were ... _flapping_.

"Impossible," he muttered as his eyes couldn't help but widen each second he was seeing the man with flapping wings.

"It's an angel. I assume," said Kratos answering a question that Edward had not heard. The blond quickly looked back to the mercenary.

"So ... is that angel Colette's father?" piped Genis looking back at the mercenary and Lloyd.

"Father?" questioned the confused alchemist as he was now studying the female blond in the middle of the room and then back to the 'angel'. "_That's _her father?"

"My name is Remiel," spoke the angle Kratos had identified. "I am an angel of judgement. I am here to guide Colette, daughter of the mana lineage, on her journey to heaven as the seventh Chosen."

Forming his hands into fists, Edward Elric couldn't believe what was happening right before his eyes. Edward could not help, but feel suspicion as he watched Colette being given some type of necklace. His golden eyes glared at the so called 'angel'.

The mahogany haired member of the group stared in wonder of the short alchemist next to him throughout the whole speech that Remiel was making.

* * *

"Man that was awesome!" cried out a happy Lloyd as he was walking down the stairs.

"Yeah, this is a very rare chance to see an actual oracle! Who knows when it'll happen next!"

Edward noticed the person next to him flinch.

"Hey, I can't believe angels do have wings."

"Well the Church of Martel scriptures did describe them that way."

"You know, I bet it's a hassle having wings! I mean when you change clothes it'll just be such a bother, I bet they have to make holes in their clothes just so that the wings could fit!"

For the first time in his life being in this strange world, Edward was wanting to pick a fight with any strange creature he could find. Just to make the russet teenager and the silverhead kid shut up. The alchemist nervously looked to the person next to him. The somewhat Winry look alike, was currently looking down at her feet as she was walking. It made Edward nervous because he didn't know how to cheer up a girl, especially a strange girl who he had just met today.

He made a gulping sound. "So...Chosen, huh."

The girl lifted up her head, and smiled at him. "Yup heh."

He blinked his eyes. Edward was expecting teary eyes or red eyes from crying, but he just received an unexpected smile from the girl who apparently happens to be a very important person in society. He quickly registered a question in his head. "So ... the Chosen has to save the world?"

The girl looked thoughtful. "Yes, in order to save this world I have to go on a journey."

"What do you have to do in this ... journey?"

"The Journey of Regeneration is the task that the Chosen must accomplish, meaning I have to release the seals of the temples that previous Chosen's have done."

"So wait ... what happened to the previous Chosen's?"

The young girl fell quiet then looked down, but soon felt something rather ... heavy on her shoulder. Colette blinked her eyes twice before looking back at Edward.

"You'll do fine," he said with a smile.

Colette slowly nodded mutely, and just watched the alchemist walk up to Lloyd and Genis who were in front. Her blue eyes landed on Edward's right arm. She shook her head, and decided to walk next to the quiet mercenary.

"Hey your sister wasn't around here," piped up Edward interrupting the 'angel' conversation Lloyd and Genis were having. Genis looked up at Edward and nodded in agreement.

"You're right...she wasn't here..." muttered the young boy, looking a bit worried all of a sudden.

"Maybe we came here before her," said Lloyd trying to make the situation more positive.

"But Lloyd," said an agitated Genis, Edward was feeling bad after stating his previous comment. "It doesn't make any sense! She left before we left school! She could be in trouble! She's always defenseless when she's around ..."

"Alright enough!" interrupted Lloyd patting the young boys head. "I'm sure the Professor is fine. I mean she could beat up a zombie AND a wolf with her ultimate kicks or slaps. She's that inhuman! Right Ed?"

Edward nodded, silently agreeing to whatever Lloyd was saying. He just wanted Genis to feel a little better. He disliked children crying.

Genis sighed, and gave the two older males a smile. "Maybe you're ..."

"And just who is inhuman?"

The group stopped their tracks, and snapped their heads ahead. There stood a woman with an orange outfit, her hands were on her hips, and her blue eyes give an icy cold glare at the people in front of her. Edward stared at the female that clearly resembled Genis. He questioned why Lloyd and Genis looked so teriffied as they met her gaze.

"Brother...?"

Brown orbs met golden.

"It's ... Brother!"

Last thing Edward could feel before he passed out was the hard solid stair steps on his back.


	5. A Reunion of Brothers

**A/N: **YESS! Good-Bye Iselia! In the next chapter they already left that small town. Will be missed, but until next time! Sorry for the delay, midterms just popped out of nowhere and that stressed me out. That meant no time for me to write. Haha, anyway hope you guys review and enjoy this!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

**Chapter V: **

A Reunion of Brothers

* * *

There was an awkward silence when Edward had opened his eyes as he stared to similar dark brown orbs he used to see when he was just a child. Edward just stared at the figure before him, he really couldn't help but stare in amazement. The boy in front of him had long hair just like his, and those dark orbs that reminded Edward so much of his mother were glazed on him. He was wearing the look-alike clothes he once wore when they journeyed together.

It couldn't be real could it?

His own brother was with him, staring at him.

It couldn't be true. His own brother was in Amestris living with Granny Pinako and Winry. He couldn't be here in this odd world where science is literally broken. Perhaps it was another double from this world. Like the one he had met in Germany, the one he still needed to apologize for his rude behavior before leaving to stop Dietlinde on abolishing Amestris citizens. The person in front of him couldn't be his little brother he had longed to see. It was just another look alike like Alfons Heiderich and his little brother.

"Brother, are you alright?" questioned the boy that Edward was confused by.

It couldn't be, could it?

"Alphonse...?" came out a raspy reply from Edward. "Is that really you?"

"Yes! It's me!" The boy gave a big grin, and he turned around to call out someone. "Miss Raine! Miss Raine! My brother! He's awake!"

Edward turned his head to where his little brother was calling at. Not far he could see Colette and Genis talking to Lloyd, but soon stopped when his brother caught their attention. He also noticed Kratos looking at something in the sky, and there he saw the female he had seen inside the temple with his brother. Her orange outfit clearly made him cringe, it was a bit to bright for his taste.

"Alphonse please help your brother sit up," the woman with silvery short hair had strictly, yet gently ordered his little brother. Of course Alphonse obeyed the orders that were given to him. A small wince came from Edward as Alphonse helped him up. He could finally get a closer look at the woman helping him. Her silver hair, and ocean blue eyes clearly reminded him of...

"Sis, is he okay?"

Genis.

The older female of the group began to explain to the people surrounding her, and of course Edward since he was the one being the patient. "He hit his back pretty hard, I'm pretty sure there will be a bruise. I think his headaches should be gone by now because of the rest he had due to the collapse. We should still have you check with a local doctor in Iselia just in case."

Edward mutely nodded, unsure of what to really say to Genis older sister. The resemblance of the two were really close, just like him and his younger brother. It was interesting how two siblings with years apart could look pretty much the same. Genetics was surely a magnificent and wonderful science he had ever known. Of course alchemy still beats it though. Well at least in Edwards case he preferred the 'lost science' Genis had called it.

A sudden sting from where his automail and flesh connected happened. His eyes flinched as Genis sister had made a small touch to the flesh that would soon lead to metal. Edward quickly pulled away his arm to his side, and looked down ashamed. No one from this world knew that he had an artificial metallic arm that his best friend had made him back in his own world. No one really had to knew about it actually. He knew his brother saw this action and Edward had heard him apologize to the older female of the group. The older sister of Genis, just stared at him from her piercing blue eyes. He couldn't help, but look away from them. Had she known that something was wrong with his body? That he did not have a flesh left leg and right arm? Edward began to ponder who was the one that carried him.

Amber eyes looked to his brother. Perhaps it was him who carried him while traveling back to Iselia. Even if it was only his brother, Al must have has some sort of help. His eyes then move to Genis. No, the boy was too small to handle any other body weight that was not of a child's form. Colette was out of the question, he was to heavy to be carried around by a girl. He wouldn't think Raine had the capability to do such thing. He looked over at Lloyd, and tried to see some sort of shocking expression or perhaps even suspicion, yet he saw none. The male clearly just gave of an innocent expression. His last glance was at the mercenary with purple clothing. Edwards eyes narrowed a bit, Kratos was a capable of carrying him too, and the male was suspicious looking. Actually now thinking about it, Kratos overall was a pretty damn mysterious person to not be trusted. At least he had a feeling he shouldn't trust the older male.

"Mr. Edward do you want to get up, and walk a bit?" questioned the female blond, as she offered her hand incase if Edward needed help standing up.

"I…"

"Brother," began Al interrupting Edward completely. "I think you need a bit of help getting up. You're body must be aching."

Edward smiled at his brother. "Yeah, thanks Al."

Accepting Colette's offer with his left hand, and his brother helping him up, Edward was up to his feet stretching a bit. "Man, I feel … like I haven't gotten up in days!"

Alphonse and Colette chuckled as Edward stretched his arms. Lloyd had given him a pat on the back for being able to recover nicely and quickly. Genis was next to his sister asking about the blonds condition while his sister gave him answers.

Ed couldn't help, but glance back as Kratos was silently watching the group. For some reason, Edward didn't like the look Kratos was giving off. It strangely reminded him of his father. Speaking of his father, he should tell his little brother about what had happened to Honenhiem in the other world he had taken refuge at. His golden eyes landed on his little brother as he was thanking the silver head woman.

Speaking of which, he had not introduced himself to the latest member of the group. Going up to the tall woman, he gave his thanks to her. "Thanks for taking care of me and my brother. My name is Edward Elric."

The silver head female gave a nod of acknowledgement. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well Edward. My name is Raine Sage." She gave a small glance at Genis and Lloyd. "I'm sorry if these two were of any… disturbance for you." She then looked up at the mercenary. "For you as well."

Kratos said nothing, while Lloyd began to complain how he was never a disturbance to anyone. Genis tried to get the brunette to keep quiet, he did not want to receive a punishment from his older sister.

"No," began Edward giving a smile at the three childhood friends. "They were great help."

"If we're done talking now, we should get the Chosen back to the village," spoke Kratos clearly getting everyone's attention. "She still needs to prepare what she is going to do from now on."

Raine nodded solemnly as she stared at the blond who had subconsciously apologized. "Agreed."

"Chosen?" questioned Alphonse as he glance at his brother.

Edward rubbed his temples. He still couldn't believe he saw a human with wings, a freaking angel no less. Tiredly he responded back to his brothers curiosity. "I'll tell you later, it's an unbelievable story Al."

All Alphonse could do is blink his eyes, and question his brothers sentence.

* * *

"…You're kidding me!" argued Alphonse as he was sitting at a chair in the room that the doctor had offered him. Once the group came to Iselia, Raine had ordered Genis and Lloyd to take Edward to the local doctor. Alphonse refused to leave his brothers side, so he had come along as well. Right now the only one inside the room were Edward and Alphonse, Lloyd and Genis were outside patiently waiting for them to come out.

"Yeah. It's disturbingly weird, actually I still can't believe it at all," muttered Edward as he was making a circling movements with his right arm. "Not to mention, they say that the angel I saw was … Colette's father."

"Colette?" asked Alphonse. "You mean the really nice girl that … reminds me of Winry?"

"Yes! Her!" agreed Edward. "I can't believe any of it. Something's weird about it, angels _don't _exist. It's impossible!"

Alphonse stood quiet, as he watched his brother cracking his knuckles. As Alphonse stared at his brother, he couldn't help to feel relieved that he was finally with him. For years he had wondered what had happened to his older brother, and for years he had been searching for him. Finally at last they were close, very close. The searching ended, and he didn't have to backtrack where he had gone before his … memories disappeared that one day. Looking down, Al couldn't help but give a sigh of relief. He was finally with his family, even if it was his big brother. Ed meant the world to Al.

Fifteen year old boy felt something heavy above his head. He looked up and noticed the right hand of his brother which was covered by a white glove. His brown eyes stared at his brother's golden ones. The two brothers smiled. "Brother…"

Ed gave his infamous smirk to him. "Glad to see you again."

Alphonse nodded. "Yeah."

There was a small silence before Edward broke it. "…Hey Al, how did you…get here?"

After a brief moment of silence, Alphonse began to answer Edward. "Truthfully Mustang told me to go with you, and he would be the one to deal with closing the gate. I was inside that … thing, and was searching for you everywhere before we were getting close to the gate. I don't think I made it in time to get to where you were fighting the enemy. But as I was searching for you… there was this really bright light. The next thing I know, I was inside the old replica of dad's armor. Then I met Miss Raine just outside the village. I was kind of injured, and brother … she used this … weird alchemy."

The last phrase caught Edwards attention the most. "Weird alchemy?"

"…" Alphonse was hesitant to speak. "Well … I can't explain it. I didn't even ask what she was doing, but it felt so … weird. It healed a small scratch I had on one of my palms."

"…Magic…?" muttered Edward deep in thought.

"Magic?" questioned Alphonse, worried about his older brother. Perhaps Ed had hit his head way harder than Alphonse had thought. "Oh brother! You really are injured!"

Ed gave a scowl. "No! In this world they … well they use 'magic' which truthfully to me it seems so … out of it. There's no way magic exists at all, but apparently in this world what you just described… it's 'magic'. I know it sounds crazy, it sounds really crazy to me, but seeing Genis just making fire out of … _nothing. _It clearly tells me that it isn't alchemy. The kid's not even using a transmutation circle!"

"…should we investigate this?" questioned Alphonse, not liking the idea of what Genis and Raine were using and calling it 'Magic'. After a small pause between the brothers, Edward nodded signaling Alphonse that they should study and research the art of the so called 'magic'. "But how are we going to research it?" asked Alphonse. "I mean … seeing this village, I don't think there's a library that will inform us about it."

"…I'm wondering if there are libraries in this world," muttered Edward, as he stood up from the chair he had been sitting at for a long time. "Guess we'll just have to go find one."

Alphonse nodded before there was a knock on the door. The two brothers noticed the old doctor coming in with a small white bag. He walked towards Edward, and handed him the small bag gently. "These are tea herbs that will help you with your sudden headaches and body aches. There's also an apple gel that can help you with the lack of nutrition, don't eat it all, try taking small bites and save it for the next hour."

The oldest Elric brother nodded. "Thanks doctor."

Just as the two brothers left their seats and were about to leave, the doctor interrupted them. "Ah, boy. I was wondering, how did you get that right metal arm of yours?"

Ed turned back and have a hesitant smile. "My best friend made it."

"Oh? Where is that person at? Triet? Palmacosta? Luin?" questioned the doctor curious about Edward's artificial arm. The two brothers glanced at each other nervously.

Alphone answered for Edward. "Luin, she's from Luin."

The doctor rubbed his white beard that he had been growing. "Ah yes, yes. Doctors from Luin are very knowledgeable. They have great herbs to make medicines. They even make their own Orange Gel! Fascinating work they do. I have to say, I wish to meet this friend of yours sometime. That arm can be a replacement for those who have escaped the ranch by miracle. Some people barely get out of there alive. Always a missing arm or leg." The doctor gave a solemn look., a small frown formed his lips. "Then again, I shouldn't be helping them. It'll only cause trouble for our village."

The two brothers got the better of them. Edward stepped up. "What do you mean? What ranch are you talking about?"

"Boy! Don't you know that there's a Desian Ranch nearby? " asked the surprised doctor, eyes almost budging out. "How can you not know of the Iselian Ranch? This village is well known to have the non-aggressive treaty with the Desian's. It's all thanks to the Chosen of course, yet …" A sigh escaped the lips of the old man. His grey eyes looked down at the floor. "I do wonder why they had attacked the Temple Martel on this day of the Oracle. To attack the Chosen is unjust. They even agreed to never make any attack on the Chosen."

"Um, excuse me sir…" Alphonse spoke up, trying to get some questions answered. "These … Desians, what do they do to people?"

The doctor shrugged. "Even I don't know my boy. Even I do not know…"

Just as Alphonse was about to ask another question, Edward had rudely interrupted him. "One last question doc, do you by chance know what city contains the largest library?"

Stroking his beard tenderly, the doctor looked thoughtful. "Well obviously Palmacosta, but I heard Asgard also had great information on Mithos the Hero. Oh, also some spirit or seal stuff."

The Elric brothers gave their thanks to the doctor, as they left the very small clinic. It really wasn't a clinic, it looked more like a regular house. Both brothers saw Lloyd and Genis talking among themselves, and as the brother's caught their attention they noticed the anxious looks the two had. Once Alphonse had asked what was wrong, they both said that they must go to Colette's house.

"Hey wait, should we pay the doctor…?" asked Edward not wanting to just leave as a freeloader. Genis shook his head, telling the older male that his sister had already paid the old doctor. Edward feeling indebted to Genis's sister, he reluctantly followed Lloyd and Genis with his brother next to him to Colette's home. While going to their destination, Edward was observing the village, and seeing how similar it was to his own village of Resembool. It looked like the small marketing area, where he used to buy the groceries with Al when his mother sent them. Not to mention the small festivals the small village would held. A small smile appeared in Edward's lips as he remembered the bittersweet memories of his childhood. He greatly missed his hometown.

Once arriving at a wooden wide house, Lloyd had knocked on the door waiting for someone to respond. All the group of boys heard was 'Come in, it's open', Lloyd took the liberty of pushing the door to get inside. The other boys followed behind his lead. Once inside the house, which looked very unique to Alphonse and Edward, they noticed the people sitting on the chairs and eyeing them curiously especially Raine, Phaidra, and Frank.

"Lloyd! Mr. Edward! Genis! Alphonse!" cried out Colette running to their side. "You guys came in time!"

"Wait, why is everyone here…?" said Lloyd in a quiet voice. Colette's bright smile wasn't as enthusiastic as before. Her eyes looked down at the floor, and waited for one of the adults in the room to talk. When no one did, she spoke. "Well … it's about the journey."

"Journey?" questioned Lloyd and the Elric brothers.

Genis crossed his arms, and gave off a look that clearly told Edward he was being looked down upon. "The Journey of World Regeneration obviously."

"Journey of…" Ed was interrupted by the brunette.

Lloyd began to protest to the group of adults. "Hey! I want to go too!"

"Lloyd!" cried out an older male as he forcefully hit the wooden table with his hand. His eyes glared at the brunette, and couldn't help to give a sigh as Lloyd did not hesitate from the motion. "Lloyd, this journey is far too dangerous. You cannot go."

"No way!" cried out Lloyd willing to protest. "I want to go with Colette to the Journey of …"

"I think it's too dangerous Lloyd," protested Phaidra calming the seventeen year old boy down. "As much as I would like for you to go, I cannot allow it…"

"But…!"

This time it was the mercenary's voice that interrupted Lloyd's upcoming protest. "Lloyd, you'll only get in the way."

Offended Lloyd glared at the mercenary. "What?!"

Coolly Kratos began to explain. "The battles of the chapel is nothing compared to the ones that the Journey of Regeneration will bring. Children should stay home."

Before the teenager could protest, the male who had protested of Lloyd going, interrupted. "Kratos is absolutely right. Now why don't you four go outside, we still have matters to discuss."

"Wait," said Edward wanting to get a chance to talk. His brother and him needed a way to go to the Palmacosta library and start researching about this world. Eyes were on him, and Edward nervously began move uncomfortably. "My brother, and I … we need to head to Palmacosta or…" He tried to recall the other place the doctor had mention. "Asgard."

Raine's expression was thoughtful, and she glanced at Phaidra, who merely nodded back. Raine sighed, and rubbed her temples. "And what business do you have there?"

Edward only said one word to gain Raine's approval. "Research on … physical science…"

"Interesting topic, very well you have my approval," Raine's blue orbs glanced at the mercenary. "What about you Kratos?"

"Hmph."

Everyone took his answer as a yes. The two Elric brother's gave each other a satisfied glance. They would be heading on a small journey just to get some answers on how this world worked. Edward was oblivious of Genis and Lloyd's frowns, but Alphonse took note of their feelings and decided to talk to them about it later.


	6. Exploring the Outside

**A/N: **_Yeey!_ Full Metal Alchemist finally ended. Sad though this only means that there will be no more Ling / Greed and Hawkeye. I was supposed to post this before I left for Mexico, but what do you know? I wanted to make this chapter longer. Well here you go! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

**Chapter VI**

Exploring the Outside

* * *

Alphonse turn around to notice Colette's movements. He question the sixteen year old as she kept glancing back from the village they had left since the morning. He couldn't help, but to feel sorry for the blond. His attention was now on Kratos, Raine, and Edward. He hesitantly caught up to his brother as he was staring up ahead.

"Brother…" mumble Alphonse trying to catch his attention.

"Hm?" His brother's golden orbs stare at his own brown ones. "What is it Al?"

Alphonse lean his body to the side, getting closer to his brother. "Don't you think … Colette looks well … homesick?"

In unison the two brothers took a glance back at the female blond who kept glancing back at the direction they had left long ago. Her hands were clasp together, and she would occasionally look back. When she was no longer looking back she would only give a sigh, and the process would repeat once again. The two Elric's gave a glance at each other again.

"Probably," said Edward shrugging his shoulders. "She'll get over it later maybe."

"…Maybe," muttered Alphonse pitying the girl behind him.

At that moment Raine turn he head around to face the Chosen of Regeneration. Her ocean blue eyes gave a worried look as the Chosen was constantly looking behind almost wishing for something to occur. A small sigh left the half elf's lips. "Colette," The blond put her attention to her teacher. "It would be better if you stay close to the group. Do remember that the Desians are after you."

"O-Oh yes! I'm sorry," Colette muttered the apology as she quickly caught up to her silver head teacher.

It had been hours since the group had left Iselia. They had left early in the morning only to say their goodbyes to Frank, Phaidra, and Genis. Some of the towns people also gave their farewells and best wishes, but since it was early in the morning it was only those who worked at that time. What surprised the two brothers was that Lloyd Irving had not shown up to say his farewells. Edward had assume that the twin swordsman was in a bad mood because of yesterdays events.

The group had halted once the mercenary had stopped. The half elf had notice the mercenary reach for his sword. Raine had motion for Colette to stay behind her, and had given a glance at the two brothers. Edward and Alphonse were right next to Colette hands already reaching their swords. The chosen herself had taken out her wooden chakrams.

"Kratos…?" questioned Edward glancing at the mercenary.

With his head Kratos motioned towards the right. "A pack of wolves to the right."

Edward made eye contact with his younger brother. "Al, stay with Colette."

"Right," Alphonse had given a nod as he took a step closer to the chosen.

"Edward," began Kratos before taking out his sword. Edward nodded and mimicked Kratos actions. Kratos stabbed his blade to the ground, and he began to make a cutting shockwave. "Demon Fang!"

The group would hear a yelp that came from an animal. Soon three wolves - very angry ones- appeared before the bushes. Alphonse quickly took out his sword and gulped as he stared at the red eyes from the wild animals in front of him. The three of them began to strike as they headed towards Edward and Kratos. Edward shifted his sword, and began to attack the wild animal. He slashes the wolf on it's side by swinging his sword. Edward mentally cursed as he noticed that he did not cut deep enough to even kill the animal. He made a mental not to read the handbook that Kratos had given Lloyd who had given to him.

"Brother! Look out!"

Just as a second wolf was about to give Edward a good bite on his right arm, a disk ring had smashed onto its face. The golden haired boy turned his head to notice the Chosen of Mana panting slightly. He gave her a small smile, and he continue to fight the battle. It wasn't long for the fight to be over, and the group began their journey once again. This time the younger companions began to chat happily.

"So how old are you Alphonse?" Colette asked as she was walking between the two Elric brothers.

"I'm fifteen, but I'm turning sixteen soon!" said the ever so cheery Alphonse as he chatted happily with the blond next to him.

"Oh! So you're one year younger than me!"

"Yes, I'm a little tall for my age though."

"Hehe! How about you Edward?"

The attention now turned to the older brother. Edward blinked his eyes before responding. "Eighteen."

He was waiting for his height to be brought up, but Colette had not brought it up at all. She just stated that he was older than Lloyd, and then she changed the topic to another one. The two brothers then began to question Colette by asking her what she liked and disliked. Soon the topic had changed to family related stuff.

"So your dad is … an angle," said Alphonse trying not to upset the blond next to him.

Colette shook her head in a 'yes' motion. "Yep. I was born with the Cruxis Crystal in my hand, so it's likely for me to -"

"That doesn't really make any sense…" muttered Edward not aware that he had interrupted the girl next to him. He was beginning to come up with theories of his own. He was sure that Colette's father was not an angel. Remiel couldn't possibly be an angel. It just wasn't possible.

"Brother…!" exclaimed Alphonse trying to bring him back from his thoughtful world.

"…Perhaps it really doesn't make any sense," said Colette smiling at the older Elric. "I'm sorry."

"Ah," seeing his mistake Edward mentally cursed himself. "No, sorry that was -"

"We're almost there," announced the mercenary not even taking a look behind him. The three blond haired teenagers behind him merely nodded to his announcement. Edward was actually thankful that Kratos had interrupted their talk. He really didn't like the way the conversation was going.

Minutes passed and finally they stopped on top of a hill and they all look down to see a small building. There were some houses with a horse stable next to them. Edward turned to see his companions. Alphonse and Colette's expression were the same, they had a look as if they were amazed by the small town in front of them. Raine seemed to be satisfied that they had finally found a place to rest for the night. As for Kratos … well he still had the same stoic face.

"This is the first time I've been to another town!" said an excited Colette blue eyes lighting up. The female blond turned to Raine. "Will we be staying here?"

Raine gave a nod to her student. "Yes, just for today."

They continue to walk down the hill. The two brothers were behind the group talking amongst each other. Alphonse began the conversation. "Brother…I was wondering when we were attacked by those wolfs…"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering … are we able to use alchemy in this world?" Al question as he began to recall some memories. "I'm not sure if we can at …"

"We'll see later when we get to the town first," finished Edward also asking questions among his head. He wanted his questioned to be answered, but first things first. They had to see if alchemy was possible in this world.

Al gave a nod agreeing with his decision. "Right, um brother …?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm worried about your automail…" his younger brother confessed. Edward blinked his golden eyes and lifted his right arm. He stared at the artificial body part that Winry had given him before he left. "What if it gets damaged on the way? I don't even know if there are automail mechanics in the world."

Edward knew that his brother was worried about him, but he had to put him at ease. "Don't worry, I'll be careful. I'm going to start reading that swordsmanship book that Kratos gave Lloyd. Well … more like Lloyd gave to me."

"Right…"

The group finally arrived at the very small village that only really contained seven houses, and a chapel. The group was heading toward the chapel saying that Colette needed to see the priest. While going there people were greeting them warmly and the brothers noticed the whispering that some made among each other. Finally in front of the chapel, Raine had opened one of the big wooden doors.

"Chosen!"

"Father!" said Colette smiling at the elderly man before her. Like a child the blond hugged the priest, who did not hesitate to hug the child back.

"It has been long Chosen," the old priest said patting Colette.

Colette merely nodded, a smile played on her lips. "Yes it has."

A sudden guilt feeling hit the eldest of the Elric brothers. He glance away from the priest and Colette. Somehow it reminded him of how he had met Rose a long time ago. How he had crushed her beliefs and hope that day. He tried his best to push away the memories.

"We'll be staying here for the night," announced Raine to Kratos, Alphonse, and Edward. "Just put your stuff upstairs, there's someone that will show us our rooms. Let us go."

"What about Colette?" asked Alphonse curiously staring at the priest and the young girl talking casually.

"She will be with the priest for the remaining of the day," said Raine already heading towards the stairs. "The priest is going to recap on what she has been learning since she was young. Teach her once again the role of the Chosen."

Just as they were walking up the stairs, Edward gave a last glance at the female blond. Something did not feel right at all. It was the same feeling that something was fishy when Cornello had the whole town of Lior to his feet. He tried to ignore the feeling just as he was walking up stairs.

Lucky for the Elric brothers that they had shared a room together with no one else. Krato's was by himself, while Raine and Colette shared a room. At this time the two blond head brothers began to talk about the wonders of magic and alchemy. They had actually come up with some theories to this 'magic', but they were still unsure about it. Now with the magic discussion over with they moved on to alchemy.

"So back in the world you resided in, you couldn't use alchemy?" questioned his brother curiously.

Ed gave a nod as he rubbed his chin. "Yeah, it was more of a lost science that evolved into chemistry. The history of it is rather interesting, but the big picture is that alchemy didn't work in that world."

Checking his little brother's expression, Ed could tell that his brother was interested by the information he just received. Ed raised his two hands, and both Elric brothers stared at the flesh and metallic hands that were covered by white gloves. "Well, we'll see from now on right?"

Alphonse mutely gave a nod and his body lean in just a bit.

_**Clap**_.

_**Thud**_.

Nothing.

Edward did not feel the sensation of alchemy doings its miracles. Hands on the ground, the two Elric brothers stared at the gloved hands touching the wooden floor. An eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"Oh this is bullshit!" cried out Edward standing up and stomping his feet on the ground. Alphonse gave a sigh as his eyes were focus on his older brothers behavior.

"Brother…"

"Bull! Magic works, but alchemy doesn't? What kind of messed up world is this?" said the frustrated Elric brother. Alphonse also stood up from the floor.

"We'll just have to try to understand how magic works then."

Edward began to walk to his bed and sat down. He grabbed a handful of hair. "This world is so confusing! It's so damn frustrating! I mean what the hell is up with this whole chosen journey too!"

Another sigh escaped from Alphonse lips, as he began heading towards the door. "I'm going to get water, do you want any bro…ther…?"

Edward blinked his golden orbs, and immediately turned his head to see his brother with the door open. He stood up and cocked his head to the side to see a blond figure in front of Alphonse. "Al?"

"Colette!" cried out Alphonse giving a quick nervous glance towards his brother. "W-What are you doing here?"

The blond female stood still with a smile on her face. "Professor Raine told me that foods ready, we'll be staying here until tomorrow morning."

Alphonse nodded his head mimicking the same facial expression as Colette. "Um well," he gave a another glance back, " we should go get food right brother?"

Edward gave a nod in response, "Yeah."

The three teenagers began to head downstairs where the kitchen was located. There they met two priest and Raine sitting at the table. A middle aged woman was serving the food that they would be eating.

"Colette," said Raine announcing the Chosen's presence. "Father Nicolas has informed me that you won't be needing to study for the remaining of the day."

"Yep!" said Colette taking a seat next to the silver head woman. The two brothers sat in front of the two companions. Just as the middle aged woman placed a plate of food in front of Edward, the alchemist decided to ask a question. "Hey, where's Kratos?"

Raine responded to his questioned as she gave off an annoyed expression. "He said that he will have lunch after everyone eats."

"He's not a talkative person is he?" asked Al as he got his plate of food. He gave his thanks to the woman.

"Obvious," muttered the Professor as she gave a nod to one of the priests.

"Very well then," said one priest that was in one head of the table. "Let us start with blessing the food that the Goddess Martel has given us."

Both Elric brothers began to fidget, and gave each other nervous glances as the others began to recite some prayer that the two did not know. While the others recited the prayer, the brother's said nothing. The Elrics did copied the motions that the rest were making. Finally the two were less stressed as they began to eat the food that was served to them.

"It is wonderful that the Chosen is being well protected," said the priest that had blessed the food. He looked much older than the other priest from the other end of the table. "I am sure that the Goddess Martel will give her thanks to you all."

Edward nervously smiled. "Y-Yeah…"

"Um," piped up his little brother next to him. "I was wondering…what does the 'Chosen' do in this journey?"

The younger priest responded to Al's question. "The chosen," he gave a soft smile to Colette, "will save this world from many disasters that will come in the future."

"The Journey of Regeneration," said Raine as if she was almost reciting a book. "Is a journey were the chosen must unlock the five seals in order to bring salvation to this world. The Goddess Martel will then descend upon the heavens, and save this world from the Desians and nourish our world. The Chosen then becomes an angel, and leave this world with the Goddess Martel."

Head rested on his palm, Edward rolled his eyes. His brother was being polite by nodding and smiling to Raine's explanation. Deep inside Edward knew that Al did not believe in the Journey of Regeneration just like him. Seriously, angels? A human being turning into an angel? That was bizarre. Even the whole Martel coming down to save the world from these 'Desians' and nourishing the planet. Too bizarre for a certain ex-alchemist.

"Oh, what about the Desians," asked Al wanting to know more information on these Desians that people were talking about. Just what in the world are they?

"What about them?" asked the elder priest in a confused tone.

Now both brothers knew when they were to back off from any question. The suspicious glance that Raine was giving the two brothers meant that the question was a bit unnatural for this world. Edward assumed that the people of this world were supposed to know what Desians are. Asking a question like that seemed stupid.

Thankfully the middle aged woman spoke up. "Those … _Desians, _are filthy half-elves… that take humans as prisoners for no reason!" Al and Ed noticed the tensed body that the woman was putting up. "They took my father and son to that Iselia ranch! Oh Chosen!"

Colette was soon gripped by the shoulders. The younger priest began to pull the middle aged woman away from the Chosen. She continued to rant, "Please Chosen! Please save this world from those _filthy _Desians!"

"Sister please!" said the younger priest as he pulled away the female from the Chosen. "Please sister it has been years…I'm sorry Chosen." Giving an apologetic look the younger priest and the woman left the kitchen.

"I-I'm sorry," apologized Al not realizing his mistake on that question. "I shouldn't have asked about the Desians…"

The elder priest gravely nodded. "It is alright child. There are many unfortunate people that are taken to those ranches, but if the Chosen were to save this world then there is a chance of hope that they will be reunited with their families or loved ones."

Raine gave a nod as she rubbed the back of Colette's shoulder. "Edward," said Raine catching the attention the older Elric brother. "Why don't you take Colette outside while Alphonse and I go and wash the dishes."

"Sure," muttered Edward taking a last bite of his bread before standing up. The two blonds began to head out of the kitchen and outside the House of Salvation.

Just outside Edward could hear a small squeal coming from the girl next to him. He noticed her eyes shining brightly, and her posture wanted to run but was being held back for some reason. He quirked an eyebrow, and glanced up ahead.

There was a dark brown dog laying down on the grass. It began to yawn, and then went back to sleep.

Without a second glance, he noticed Colette running towards the dog. The dog immediately stood up and gave a friendly bark. Edward quickly went to catch up to the sixteen year old girl.

"It's so fluffy and cute!" said Colette dazed by the animals cuteness.

He glanced down, and for barely just a second he remembered Winry and Den back in Amestris. He squat down and petted the brown dog with his left hand. "He's pretty tamed."

Colette's smile widen. "He's so cute! I wonder if he has a name…"

"Probably not," said Ed checking for a collar. "He's most likely a …"

"Bob!" exclaimed Colette hugging the dog to no end.

Speechless Edward just stared at the girl next to him. "B-Bob…?"

"Yep! I'll name him Bob!" she said smiling at Edward and the dog. "It's such a cute name for a cute doggie!"

This chosen girl was so childish it made him want to remember the good old days when his mother was still alive. He began to ponder if it was normal for a sixteen year old to act this childish. He decided to let the thought go as a smile spread through his lips.

"Bob is kind of a simple name," he said rubbing the back of the dogs ear.

Colette gave him a small frown. It seemed that she really liked the name. "But…"

"But it kinda suits him right?"

Colette gave a giggle. "Yes!"

"Hey Colette," said Edward trying to get her attention. It was really hard since she was hugging the dog. It was a wonder why the dog wasn't complaining. She finally gave her attention to the alchemist as he said her name twice. "Have you ever gotten a pet or something? You seem kind of obsessed with the dog."

It was rude, but he wasn't the one to make a friendly conversation just to get the information he wanted. That is unless it was really important.

He could see a hue of pink in her cheeks. She let go of the dog, and just petted the head. It was unknown if the dog gave a bark of either satisfaction or dissatisfaction as she let go. "W-Well, I had to travel a lot to the Martel Temple as a child, and received lessons everyday. I didn't really have time to have a pet. I think some of the priests thought it would be a distraction from my lessons too."

"Religious lessons right?" he said a bit arrogantly and rude.

A nod. "Yes, I was taught very young."

The was a small silence before Edward spoke. "So you believe in everything they taught you?"

"Yes."

"What if it wasn't the truth?" he muttered darkly, and stopped scratching Bob's ear. "Do you seriously believe in these things like Martel and angels? The whole saving the world thing?"

The blond stood quiet, but Edward knew she was looking at him.

"…"

Edward took note of Colette's figure. Her body was still, and she was rubbing Bob's chin as it whines for more attention. Her eyes were clearly fix on the dog now. Her lips did not give a frown nor a smile. He could probably say that this was Colette's thoughtful expression.

Edward sighed. "You know, I once knew someone like you."

Colette did not respond.

"She was lied to by a priest who worked for," he began to think of how to explain the story. "An 'organization' that only wanted fame in order to control the city for who knows what."

Colette was still silent, which made him think that he could still go on with his story.

"My brother and I are not religious in any point. We don't believe in any deity of any sort. What we do believe is Truth," he began to pet the dog which was beginning to whine quite a lot. " By truth I mean facts and experiments that proves such thing exist. Truthfully I can't believe in this whole journey you're doing. I mean has it even ever happen before? Were the chosen's before you ever succeeded?"

Edward stopped his ranting and carefully glanced at the girl near him. She was still quiet like before.

"I may have been taught by a priest at a very early age," said Colette still petting the animal before her. "But I really think the Goddess Martel exists. There has been other Chosen's, and it's true that some of them have failed this important journey."

Colette stood up and her hands were clutched together. "But I'll try my best!" With a determine look Colette glanced at Edward. "It may be really hard to believe that there is a goddess, but it is my own will that I wish to continue my practices. I believe that's … the truth…! I'm sure what I was taught is the truth!"

Edward did not know if the girl was simply ignorant or perhaps brained washed by the priests. He gave up this conversation though. Who knew how long it would take to get to Palmacosta. Having two people in bad terms while traveling together could get exhausting. "Fine, believe what you want then."

There was a small silence before it was broken by Bob's constant whining for attention.

"Um, Edward…?" asked Colette as she began to pat the brown dog.

"Yeah?" he asked as he stood up from squatting. His right knee began to become numb. "What is it?"

"You said other deity. Are there other gods or goddesses besides Martel in other cities?"

Edward began to hesitate as he was questioned by the girl younger than him. Now how was he going to explain _that_?

"Um, well…" Edward began to choke. In this world were there other gods besides the one named Martel? He couldn't exactly say the ones from the two worlds he had come from. "You see…"

"Brother…!"

Alphonse had the perfect timing. He had to thank his brother later on. Both blonds turned to see the youngest of the Elrics.

"Brother!" said Alphonse once again finally in front of Edward.

"Al? What's wrong?" asked a worried Edward.

"You…desert…automail…!"

Edward raised an eyebrow questioning what his brother had said. "Wait, Al calm down. What are you talking about?"

Alphonse took deep breaths before talking once again. "Brother we're going through the desert tomorrow!"

Just as Edward was about to exclaim, Colette interrupted him. "Oh yes, didn't you two know?"

"Know?" exclaimed Edward as he began to pale.

Colette was not aware of Edward's automail, and the risks that he would have to take in order to go to Palmacosta. Colette was taken aback from Edward's behavior. She stood silent as the two brothers began to talk amongst each other.

"Brother this isn't good…" muttered Al giving a worried look to his older brother. "You won't be able to stand the heat with your automail…"

Edward ran his left hand through his hair, "Damn it… Isn't there another road to take besides the dessert?"

Al gave his response. "I asked the same question to Miss Raine as well, but she says we have to stop at this town called Triet, which is in the desert!"

"Um…" Colette was watching the two brothers, trying to understand what was going on.

"This isn't good…"

"This is really bad bother…"

"Um, may I ask a questioned?" asked the meek Colette. "But what is an automail?"

The two brothers stared at the blond. Their eyes gave her the feeling that they were unsure how to answer her. Their hesitant posture was noticeable, and that made her worry a bit. Her blue eyes noticed how Edward was clutching his right arm protectively.

"Is something wrong…?"

Alphonse stared at his brother who merely shrugged, and looked away. The younger brother frowned at his brother's actions.

"You see Colette, Edward's right arm … well it isn't … his _flesh _arm."


	7. Triet Desert

**A/N: **_dancinglifeaway_; you bring up a good point about the age. I was confused as well, but when I saw the last episode of FMA2003 Alphonse looked a lot younger than 14. So I was assuming he got his old body back when he was just what 10-11 years old? I could be wrong, but let's just go with Alphonse being 3ish years younger. ;)

* * *

**Chapter VII **

Triet Desert

* * *

Edward glared at the road ahead. He could clearly see his enemy up ahead: _the desert_. It would be hell for him this whole week. He damned Kratos for suggesting to go to the village of Triet instead of searching for the temple like a needle in a hay stack. Yes, Edward was thinking irrationally, but that was because he was nervous. Nervous of the heat that will inflict pain on him due to his automail. He cursed under his breath. Did he mention he really hated the desert?

"Brother," Edward gave a glance to his younger brother. "Are you sure you're alright?"

The older brother nodded mutely. He didn't want to worry his brother about such pitiful problem.

"Maybe it would be better if we told Professor Raine," suggested the female blond. "I'm sure she'll help you."

It was funny how Colette had respond to Edwards arm that day that Alphonse had confessed about Edward's left leg and right arm being metallic. She had just smiled, and told them that she felt his arm quite heavy for a normal arm. This surprised the two brothers, and it left Edward quite confused as hell. Since when did the Chosen of Mana knew?

"We really can't do that Colette," said Alphonse with a nervous look. Raine had been watching the three blonds carefully with her ocean blue eyes. She was not about to leave the three out of her sight. "She'll start to question brother."

"But what is there to ask?" said Colette clearly not thinking enough of the situation. "Edward really needs help."

Just as Alphonse was about to speak, his older brother had cut him off. "She'll be wondering how I got _this_ arm and leg. It's not worth risking a way to go to Palmacosta."

Colette solemnly nodded her head. She decided to stick with the two brothers in case they needed help. The group continued walking in silence. Kratos was in front of the group leading the way while Raine was in the middle of the group glancing back to see Colette and the Elric brothers. Edward was glaring straight ahead, he really, _really_, hated the desert. It took them no more than ten minutes to finally cross the border of the grass line to the sand line.

Edward was already looking pale, and his eyes never left the sand. He was going to have trouble in this journey. He was just hopeful that they would reach the village 'Triet' soon. Usually he would be optimistic (with a few complaints) about any journey he would go on, but right now negativity was the main theme of his feelings. Edward Elric was not a happy camper.

* * *

"How much _longer_?" complained Edward to his brother and the chosen. His arm and leg were stinging him with pain. He detested the heat right now. He didn't believe he could withstand it at any moment. The part that connected his flesh to the metal of his automail was burning. It almost felt as if his skin was beginning to break open until anyone could see his bones. Obviously Edward was exaggerating, but it hurt like hell.

"Brother…" muttered Alphonse, trying not to touch his brother's shoulder. "Colette, when will we get there?" Worriedly the chosen left to go to the Professors side leaving Alphonse and Edward alone at the back.

"God-damn!" muttered Edward taking his steps. He winced at the last step, his skin on his arm and leg burned. "This burns like a motherfu-"

"Thirty minutes!" Colette yelled back at the two brothers.

"Don't worry bother," said Alphonse trying to give support to his brother. "We'll be there in thirty minutes. Just hold it a little longer…"

Edward shut his mouth as he gave a nod to his brother. His eyes were fixed up ahead. His head was trying to focus on the road. He had to look at the bright side. Every time the sun sets in the desert the temperature will cool down. It wouldn't be long…

He really hoped it wouldn't be long.

Thirty minutes of pain and anguish had passed, and Edward was joyful that he wouldn't have to take another step of that blasted sand with that hot heat hovering over his head. The group had finally made it to Triet which wasn't a big village. Just as Alphonse was about to suggest to go to an inn to reserve bedrooms, Kratos had interrupted the young boy.

"It is best if we find the fortune-teller," announced Kratos looking back at the group.

"But-" Alphonse once again got cut off by one of the members of the group.

"Yes that would be a wise decision," said Raine clearly liking the idea. "After that we will go find an inn to stay at."

Edward groaned, and his golden eyes narrowed at a certain mercenary. Right now he really disliked Kratos. He even disliked him more than Colonel Mustang, and that was saying something.

The group didn't search to long to find a small purple hut where the fortune-teller resided. Raine had asked many villagers of Triet to be specific on their answers when they had asked where the fortune-teller lived. Edward didn't care if they found some weird woman claiming to be a fortune-teller, all he wanted was shade.

"It looks … a bit," Raine paused as she analyzed the purple tent.

"It looks like a crappy tent found in any crappy back alley. I even bet inside is filled with junk," muttered Edward next to Raine, who was obviously displeased by the choice of words he had given. Edward didn't care about the look Raine was giving him, and he just entered the tent followed by Alphonse and Colette.

Edward was mostly right about the tent being filled with junk. There were many scrolls, and books all over the floor. There was a small chest to the side, Edward guess that there were more books and scrolls inside.

"Welcome Chosen of Mana," said a tan woman giving a smile to the female blond. "I was expecting you."

Edward froze as his eyes focused on the person in front of him. He could also sense his brother's stiffing posture.

"R-Rose…?"

"Noah…"

Both brothers glanced at each other with wide eyes. They were pretty much confused as to what was going on. How in the world was Rose (Noah) here? There were many questions that were going on through their minds.

* * *

"Are you two alright?" questioned Raine setting her stuff down on the floor. The group was finally at the inn. Kratos was currently reserving the rooms, while Colette was giving the money to the inn keeper. Both brothers were just silent throughout the whole event

"Yeah, we're fine," replied Edward passing by Raine. "Hey Kratos!"

"I apologize for my brother's behavior Professor Raine," said Alphonse to the woman.

"Is there something bothering the two of you?" questioned the Half-elf.

"Well…we just thought that the fortune-teller looked a lot like … one of our friends. That's all, it just shocked us."

"A strong resemblance? Could she not be a relative to that acquaintance of yours?"

Alphonse timidly nodded. "Y-Yes you're right. That could be it!"

Alphonse was soon saved from Raine's questioning by his brother. Alphonse gave a quick excuse to the half-elf, and was soon standing in front of his brother. Both brothers picked up their stuff, and went to the room that Kratos and the two of them would be sharing. Once inside the wide room, they began to discuss.

"That was Rose brother!" said Alphonse as he sat on a random bed. "How can… Last time I saw her was at Lior."

"She looks more like Noah," muttered Edward as he rubbed his temples. "Then again Noah is a resemblance of Rose, who…ugh!" Edward laid on the bed, pounding his flesh arm on the mattress. A stinging pain caused Edward to groan. "Shiiit, my arm and leg…"

The two brothers stayed silent for a while.

"Brother…does this mean we will see the others too?" whispered Alphonse looking thoughtful.

"…" Edward didn't respond. He didn't like the feeling of seeing the replicas of his acquaintances, and for them not knowing him at all. It had hurt when he had met Gracia and Hughes in Germany. They didn't know him. Meeting Alfons was hard for Edward because he gave a strong resemblance to his younger brother.

The rest of the day went in silence. Alphonse had decided to go out with Kratos and Raine to get supplies. Colette was upstairs doing her routine prayers. Meanwhile Edward was in bed, still thinking of the previous even that had happened. He still couldn't believe that another Rose or Noah was in this world. Did it mean that there were other worlds with Noah or Rose's in it? Would he be seeing Different types of theories were roaming in the blond head.

"Damn," Ed muttered as he sat up. He gave a glance at the window. The sun was setting, so it meant that it was safe for him to go outside. Edward got out of bed and headed toward the door.

"Colette…?"

"Ah…!"

Both blonds were startled. Colette was the one who soon apologized.

"I'm so sorry, I was going to check if Kratos and Alphonse had come back with Professor Raine…" said Colette expressing a troubled look.

Edward was hesitant to see Colette looking troubled. "W-Well they're not here, meaning they're still out buying supplies."

"Yes, you're right…Oh! Were you going to go out?"

"Yeah, just to get some…well just to cool down the automail."

Colette nodded and took a step to the side. "I'll tell the other's you went for a walk then."

Edward thanked the blond girl, and left the inn. The weather was much cooler than this afternoon were the sun was burning him. Feeling satisfied with the air that was cooler than before, he began to run to his destination. He passed by the oasis, and a couple of kids playing with a dog. He did not say sorry to the woman he had bumped near the fish market. His eyes were mainly fixed on that shaggy purple tent he had visited this afternoon. He stopped, once he was face to face with the purple cloth. He took a deep breath, and began to enter inside.

"Ah, it's you."

Amethyst eyes met golden ones.

Edward's eyes began to look rather tired each second he was stared at the fortune-teller. "Yeah, it's me."

The woman before him had a great resemblance of Noah and Rose. Her dark brown locks were let loose, her amethyst eyes looked brighter when it was only the candles giving light to the tent, and her whole facial structure was the same. Edward flinched as she was staring at him. It was like the first time Noah was analyzing him back in Germany.

"So, you're Edward right?" she asked with the same voice as Rose and Noah.

"H-How…"

"The Chosen of Mana had said your name in my presence if you haven't remembered."

He felt like a fool. "Yeah, I'm Edward."

In front of her was a crystal ball that she was currently playing with. Edward questioned her actions and the item as well.

"So why are you here?" she questioned as she paid attention to the transparent crystal in front of her. "I've already told the Chosen where the first seal is. Does she need anything else?"

"That's not …why I'm here," admitted Edward.

"Then tell me," she looked straight at his eyes. "Why are you here?"

"…" Edward rubbed the back of his neck. "I…You…"

"Yes?" the Noah and Rose replica leaned forward. "What is it? You want me to read you what a certain someone thinks of you?"

Edward gave up, and just nodded. "Yeah, sure."

The woman in front of him smiled, and gave him a nod. "Very well then, think of person who you wish to know what they think of you."

Edward shrugged and nodded. The blond began to think of anyone he had met. Finally deciding who, he began to picture that person in his mind.

"This person…doesn't know you very well. You're practically strangers. Actually I believe this person is not that content with you at all," mumbled the fortune-teller. "This person … Edward I think this person will be a little envious of you. You should be careful. This person's feelings are complex too understand."

Edward blinked his eyes. "How the hell can that be? I've only…"

"Miss fortune-teller!" cried out two kids, already entering without realizing they had interrupted something. "Tell us our fortune! We'll pay you fifty gald each!"

"Very well then, let me just finish with this costumer," said the Noah look a like. "Well Edward, I should let you go, but I will warn you. You must be careful with your actions."

"Yeah sure," said Edward not really believing in that sort of thing. "By the way…"

"Hmm?"

"What's your name?"

"Runa."

"Runa," the ex-alchemist muttered as his eyes began to look distant. "Well thanks a lot Runa."

"You're welcome, Edward."

* * *

"…Are we _freakin _there yet?" muttered Edward covered in a brown like cloak. They had left early in the morning to go in search for the first seal. It had been hours of walking and they had not seen any single ruin that Raine had mentioned about that morning. Right now Raine gave glared to the ex-alchemist. Both Colette and Alphonse winced at the look. Kratos was in front of them, so he didn't see anything.

"If you're going to whine we should have left you at the Inn," muttered Raine. "I'm also tired of the heat, but we must all deal with it. We must find the first seal."

"Bet it doesn't even freakin' exists," grumbled the older Elric brother. Alphonse covered his brothers mouth as he noticed that Raine was not happy of what she just heard.

Colette squinted her eyes, and ran towards Kratos leaving the two Elric brothers and Raine alone.

"Hey everyone!"

The group paid attention to the Chosen of Mana.

"Isn't that Noishe?"


	8. Sylvarant Base

**A/N:** I thought I should post this up since I'll be super busy the next two weeks. Damn Bio and Philosophy exams. Kills my tiiiiime. ):

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

**Chapter VIII**

Sylvarant Base

**

* * *

**

"Where is this place?" whispered Raine as she was hiding behind a rock. Her lips formed a frown, as she analyzed the building in front of her. She then turned to a silver head young boy who she had found hours ago with the help of Colette. "Genius, care to explain?"

The silver head boy looked down at his shoes, his small body was slightly trembling. "I-I'm not sure sis, but those guys took Lloyd inside that building! Raine, we have to get him out of there! Who knows what they might do to him."

"It would be smart to be calm in a situation like this," said Kratos, arms crossed. "The enemy might be able to hear us."

Edward took a small peak at the guards that were at the door. He analyzed the clothing that the two guards were wearing. Something in his mind clicked, and he turned to face the Chosen and her small friend she was trying to comfort. "Hey, aren't those guys from the temple?"

Raine and his younger brother who was next to him gave him puzzled looks. The older Elric ignored their expressions. "You know the guys that attacked us at the shrine place?"

"Well duh Ed," said Genius being rude to the ex-alchemist. "They are desians you know."

A loud noise was heard. Raine had slapped her younger brother from the back of his head. The young silver head boy clutched his head, and groaned in pain. The sister of the young one narrowed her eyes at the boy then gave an apologetic expression to the older Elric brother. "I am sorry for my brothers rudeness." She turned to her younger brother, "Genius..."

"Sorry..." mumbled the boy.

A bit shocked Edward accepted the apology. "Y-Yeah it's fine." Ed began to ponder if that was the way Raine punished her brother.

"Well," began Alphonse as he interrupted the awkward silence. "How are we going to help Lloyd escape from here?"

"...I suppose the easiest way is to attack from the front," suggested Kratos. He took notice of the doubtful looks from the Sage and Elric siblings. "With magic of course."

"That does sound reasonable," muttered Raine agreeing with the plan. "After that I believe I can find a way to open those doors."

"Then let us begin." Kratos nodded his head to Genius. "I will take the one on the left with a fireball, you'll take the one in the right."

"Magic?" whispered Alphonse to his older brother. "Is this what you were talking about brother?"

Edward nodded as he paid his full attention to Kratos and Genius. There was this type of light surrounding the two magicians. Soon a small ball of fire was formed. The two of them shouted a 'fireball' before the two balls of flame left to hit the two guards. With that power of magic the two guards fell on the ground unconscious.

"Alright!" cheered the young Sage.

"Let us move on," said Kratos going ahead of the group. Edward narrowed his eyes as he carefully studied the toy like weapon that Genius was holding. Right now Edward was pondering if the weapon had anything to do with casting the ball of fire.

"Impossible," muttered his brother having the same expression Edward had when he had first seen magic back at the temple. "Brother how did that..."

"We'll only get the answers by getting to Palmacosta," finished Edward. He motioned for his brother to follow him. "Let's save Lloyd first."

Alphonse was pale as a ghost, but he nodded his head in a motion of agreement. "Right. Let's save Lloyd."

The two brothers caught up to the group. Raine was currently typing furiously on a machine that was foreign to Edward and Alphonse. The two Elrics took a closer look. Edward had the guts to ask his question to the mercenary. "What is she doing?"

"Trying to open the doors with a code," coolly responded Kratos with his arms crossed. When he responded to Edward he had not faced him, instead he was staring at the door, never leaving his eyes off.

Just as Edward was about to ask another question, the doors to the gate opened. Kratos was once again leading, but was stopped by Raine.

"Everyone wait," called out Raine. She took a glance at the Elric brothers. "It would be wise if we split up. This place is big, and Lloyd could be anywhere. Kratos take Genis and Colette with you. I'll take Edward and Alphonse."

"If that is what you wish," Kratos nodded at the woman before him. "Very well then. Let us go."

Edward and Alphonse watched the group of three disappear behind some gates. They turned around to face Raine. Edward was going to open his mouth to say something, but Raine beat him to it.

"Let's do some research of this building," she said walking away from the two brothers.

"Wait, what about Lloyd?" piped up Alphonse confused with the decision Raine had made. "Didn't we split up to find him?"

"We'll find him, now let's go to the computer room to see what information we can get."

"You're pretty sneaky," said Edward grinning at the woman. "You knew we were curious of the technology here, and you decided to choose us to help you seeing that Colette and Genius weren't to interested at the front gate."

"Brother...?"

Raine placed her hands on her hips, and her staff that was wrapped on her back moved as she turned to face them. She gave a small smile at the two blonds. "I believe you have discovered my true intentions. You two understand the feeling of wanting to have knowledge. Since us three are some type of scientist, we should be able to figure out an easy way to find Lloyd. The only way to find him..."

Edward gave the famous Elric smirk. "Is by using the technology of the enemy."

Raine nodded, and gave her teacher phrase. "That is correct Edward. Now let us find the room."

The three of them began to search for the room that they wanted to find. They tried their best to hide from the enemy, but sometimes they would get caught by some small flying machine. Raine took care most of the machine fighting. She would wham a few machines or two with her staff. Alphonse was more likely to practice with the sword that he had. He was getting used to cutting the machines wings. Edward on the other hand was getting frustrated. He knew he had a metal arm and leg, so he was tempted to hit the things with his automail. For obvious reasons he didn't do it, so he tried to keep his frustration hidden. In a way he was improving a bit with his sword when fighting those annoying machines that would shoot these electrical balls at him. Those things were an annoyance!

"I have a feeling that this might take a while," muttered Alphonse getting a bit annoyed. "I hope we get there soon."

"I think we're here," whispered Raine as she stopped. She motioned for the two brothers to come close to her which they did. They took a peak, and they noticed two men guarding the doors.

Raine was beginning to take out her staff, and the brothers took out their swords. The nodded at each other for a signal to go out and attack the guards. Alphonse and Edward were the first ones to expose themselves. The guards were unprepared for a sneak attack, so when they took out their swords it wasn't that professional of them. One of the guards had trouble taking his sword out. What happned to that guard was something he clearly was not expecting. A punch from Edwards right arm had knocked him out unconsciously. The ex-alchemist smiled to himself, as he noticed his brother slashing the other guards leg.

Edward noticed the hesitant look that Alphonse had made before attacking the guards. He knew how Alphonse was more of a pacifist than a violent person. Ed also knew that for some reason his brother was going to take this journey as a challenge.

_Smack._

Both brothers paid attention to the Professor whom had knocked out the guard that Alphonse had trouble attacking. She twirled her staff, and the tied it on her back. "Let's move on shall we?"

The group of three entered the room, and Edward immediately went to one of the computers. He analyzed the technology and to his surprise: he did not understand the symbols that were on the keyboard. The cursive writing was foreign to him. The ex-alchemist frowned, and he turned around to face Raine. "I can't understand any of this."

"This is..." Raine pushed Edward to the side. "I can understand this, why don't you two go and see that no one is coming near."

Edward and Alphonse gave a hesitant glance at Raine, but they obeyed her anyhow. The two of them exited the room. Alphonse gave a worried look towards his brother.

"What if it's a common language?" pondered his brother.

"..."

"Brother?"

"I think I screwed up," muttered the eighteen year old. "Big time..."

The two brothers went silent, and kept to themselves. They were on guard if anyone or thing would come by. It didn't take long for Raine to exit the room. They questioned her perplexed expression, but both brothers said nothing. The rest they left to Raine. She was leading them to where currently the others were. Apparently Kratos group had luckily found Lloyd all safe and sound for the most part. Instead of going head on in fighting, they tried their best hidden from any guard or machine thing. One of those floating machine had spotted them, but they quickly ran away. They had no time to fight that thing. What was important was that they needed to catch up with the others, save Lloyd, then get the hell away from this base.

"This way," said Raine leading the group. "We just need to pass a couple of hallways."

It took them less than five minutes to finally be face to face with a door that will lead to the rest of the group. Raine was the first one to enter, then the brothers. It was an elegant room in Alphonse and Edwards observation. It resembled a lot like Mustang's office. Except the office was in chaos. A desk and chair were broken, and if Ed took a closer look he could see the floor have black stains from burnt. The rest of the group was there looking weary, what surprised the brothers (probably Raine as well) was that Kratos and the others had injuries. Just what had happened inside this room!

"Hey guys!" said a brunette giving them a grin. "Long time no see!"

Edward rubbed his temples while his brother gave a smile to the twin swordsman.

"Greetings can be given outside," said Kratos putting his sword back inside the sheath. "Right now we must go before the enemy searches for us."

Edward helped Colette who looked like she was about to collapse any moment. Alphonse took care of Genius because his sister was currently picking stuff up. The group of seven had begun to leave the room. They were quick in moving out. If any guards were to see them, Kratos was the man to give his 'Demon Fangs' to them. It didn't take so long for the group to get out of the building and be met by a strange animal.

"Noishe!" cried Lloyd as he gave a great big hug to the creature before him. "I thought you would have run away like a coward!"

Kratos placed his hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "We don't have time for this, we must move on."

Edward grumbled as the heat began to heat up his automail. He really disliked the hot weather.

* * *

"Fuck," muttered the eighteen year old. It was currently night time, and the group had passed the village Triet. Raine had decided that it would be better to be on schedule, and to find the first seal. Because it was now night time the group decided it would be better to rest up. They did not want to get lost at night to which it made no sense to Edward. He already believed that they were lost, anyone can get lost in the desert!

"Something the matter Ed?" questioned Lloyd who was sitting right next to him.

"Nothing," grumbled out Edward taking a bite of his sandwich Genius had made. "Just tired..."

Lloyd gave a sigh. "You hate the heat too don't you?"

Edward glanced at him. "You mean you too?"

Lloyd gave a bitter look. "Yeah, hate the heat. I can't stand it!"

Edward nodded before he took a bite of his food. He knew why he hated the heat, and that was because of his automail. The skin burning because of the metal irritated him. If he didn't...caused that stupid curse that took his arm, and leg in exchange for his brothers body then he wouldn't have really minded the sun. Lloyd was probably not exposed to such weather.

"Soo," Lloyd began to start the small talk now. "How are you getting along with _that_ guy?"

By _that_ guy he had meant the mercenary that was currently with Noishe. Edward gave a questionable glance at the mercenary. Kratos was petting the 'dog' as Lloyd called it, and was simply looking the same as usual.

"I haven't really spoken to him," said Edward turning to Lloyd. "He seems to be reserved with us. Not that talkative."

Lloyd crossed his arms. "So he's acting like he's all that."

Edward blinked his eye not able to comprehend how Lloyd got to that conclusion. Just as the ex-alchemist was about to speak, Lloyd interrupted.

"I don't get why he puts up such a strong and cool act," muttered the brunette, as his eyes gave a distant look. "Reminds me of someone really..."

Edward didn't know what to do in this situation, so he said nothing and kept the silence going. It wasn't long for Lloyd to excuse himself and bother his best buddy Genius.

"Hey," Edward glanced up to see his brother. Alphonse took the liberty to sit next to Edward. "How's the automail brother?"

Edward grimly looked at his right arm and left leg. "Good, for now."

"That's good," said his brother handling him a cup of water. Edward gladly took it. "Raine says that we'll be at the first seal tomorrow in the afternoon."

"_Wonderful_," was Edward's sarcastic response.

Alphonse gave a frown. "Brother if we're going to tag along we have to be respectful. Colette's views are …"

"She's just like Rose," interrupted Edward. "She's going to get hurt by all that … that…"

Alphonse nodded. "I know, but … we're here to investigate about this world and the … magic. For that we have to go to Palmacosta. I think Raine is really suspecting your religious views. You're being really rude to those who are praising and admiring Colette."

Edward crossed his arms, and leaned in. He took a glance at Lloyd, Genius, and Colette who were happily chatting among themselves. "I'll keep my criticizing to a minimum."

Alphonse gave a sigh. "I hope so brother…I really want to understand what magic is…"

There was a silence between the brothers.

Both of them hoped that they would be able to reach Palmacosta soon, so that they may get their questions answered.


End file.
